


in which adam accidentally time travels

by EmberlyMay



Series: in which adam lives and changes time [1]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Adam (Voltron) Lives, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Alternate Universe - Future, F/M, First Kiss, Hinted klance if you squint hard enough, M/M, Memories, Oo new paladins, Time Travel, hinted Hunay
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-08-10
Updated: 2018-12-22
Packaged: 2019-06-25 12:37:33
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 12
Words: 25,216
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15640908
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/EmberlyMay/pseuds/EmberlyMay
Summary: You know that moment when you accidentally time travel 20 years into the future instead of dying so now everyone you once loved thinks you're dead? Yeah, that's basically what's happening to Adam.Let's just hope that these weird teenagers who call themselves the "3rd Generation of Voltron Paladins" can help him get back to where he belongs. Which is not the future where a shit ton of stuff happened.





	1. death and rebirth (not really tho)

**Author's Note:**

> I like time travel stories, so I decided to make my own. The alternative title is "LOL Bitches I Lived"
> 
> Enjoy

In a single moment, Adam’s life flashed before his eyes. The blast hit, but it didn’t hurt. It was just there and he wasn’t.

 

He was brought back to a time all too familiar.

* * *

_It was his second year at the Garrison, age 14._

 

_“Um, do you need some help on that question?” He remembers that once he looks up to see who had said that, his whole life would change._

 

_“You’ve just been staring at it for like, 10 minutes.” He shook his head._

 

_“Oh, no, I was just lost in thought. T-this question wasn’t the reaso-” He looks at the question and realized that it did seem a bit difficult. Paper homework was never his thing, but it was Takashi Shirogane’s. The other boy had a small laugh._

 

_“Well, I can help you. These questions are easy to figure out once you find the right formula.” He stuck his hand out for Adam to shake._

 

_“Takashi Shirogane, just call me Shiro though.” Adam took his hand and shook it._

 

_“Adam Wheeler.”_

* * *

That was when they first really met. Even in the whole year, they were first years, he met Takashi at that lunch table while he was doing homework.

 

Some pain hit his chest, but he wasn’t afraid.

* * *

_They were walking back to their dorms after that afternoon’s simulation. It was their 4th year at the Garrison, they just turned 17._

 

_“God, Iverson is putting us on more drills every month.”_

 

_“Well, I guess he believes we can be great pilots one day. He trains us hard so we know what to expect in the future.” Adam had to admit, Takashi was that most mature person he knew. Maybe that’s why he fell for him in the first place._

 

_“Yeah, whatever. Wanna go grab some lunch before Iverson makes us throw it all up in 2 hours.” Takashi laughed at his friend’s joke._

 

_“Sure. Oh, by the way, I gotta talk to you about something.”_

 

_“What’d you need?”_

 

_“I’ll ask you while we eat. Let’s go, I’m starving.” Adam wondered how such a mature guy can be so carefree._

* * *

He remembers that day. It was the day Shiro ask him to be his flight partner once they graduated from being cadets. He obviously agreed.

 

That was the day that their feelings of being definitely more than friends or flight partners started escalating.

 

The pain reached to his head, one last memory.

* * *

_“I love you.” Those were the words that caught him off guard as he ate his cereal. This was a month after they decided to be roommates, with the feeling of love being obviously mutual on both sides. Neither said they words until Takashi did that morning._

 

_“Rrwait rwhat?” Adam’s mouth was still full cereal. His wide eyes were staring at Takashi as he stood there in front of him._

 

_“I. Love.You.” Adam swallowed down the cereal and tried to find the right words to say. It wasn’t that he didn’t love Takashi, it was that he was trying to find words that didn’t make the situation feel awkward._

 

_His body moves faster than his words. He grabbed Takashi's face and kissed him. He let go for a moment._

 

_“I guess that’s a ‘Love you, too’?” Adam shook his head with a smile on his face and they kissed again._

* * *

What Adam would do relive his memories just to feel that spark of happiness one last time. His world went black in seconds.

* * *

 

“Hey, what’s that floating over there?”

 

“Is that some dude in the old Garrison Uniforms?”

 

“No way, I haven’t seen someone wear those since we look at the photos from the Garrison Memorial. You know the ones from the big Earth war the second generation fought in.”

 

“Well, it’s good to know you can remember _something,_ Adarien.”

 

“Uh, guys. You think we should help him?”

 

“What if it’s a trap?

 

“We take him in at caution. Jessa, take him in the green lion. We will be landing on Olkarion soon, we can make a full check for anything that may identify him. We will make plans on bringing him to Earth once we gather enough information from him to trust him. Do you understand.”

 

“Yes, Jonah.”

 

Adam couldn't move, talk, but he could hear. He heard the voices speak as if he were some strange relic from the past, and they spoke of a colored lion, was it the lion of Voltron Officer Holt talked about? He couldn’t open his eyes to see, but he felt himself being pulled in by some force.

 

“Okay, got him.”

 

“Good job Jessa, now let’s get to Olkarion before Gane forces find us.” He felt the flight. It was fast and the flyer obviously wasn’t trying their best to fly safely. Turbulence was all this flight was made up of. He couldn’t see what obstacles they avoiding, but these kids needed to get more training.

 

When they finally landed, Adam let out a deep breath.

 

 _‘It’s over.’_ Was what he thought before someone who he assumed was half his height started trying to lift him up from wherever he was lying down. He heard the door open and footsteps.

 

“Jess, you can’t lift a fully grown man on your own. Let me help.” The other girl took Adam and carried him on her shoulders. He could hear the smaller girl pout.

 

“I was doing fine Rowan, but thanks anyway.”

 

“Come on Jonah needs this guy investigated now.” They walked out and the cool air hit Adam’s warm face.

 

“Is he in good condition?”

 

“What in your right mind would make you think my flying would put him in a bad condition? I am an excellent pilot, I get it from my dad.” Jonah, who Adam assumed was the leader, was very annoyed by his teammates.

 

“Come on, Jonah! Turn that frown upside down!”

 

“Adarien, no one has ever said that phrase in 10 years. Even then, I think it would be pretty annoying to hear.” Adam felt someone trying to check his pockets. It seemed as if they were checking for an ID or something to find out who he was. Jessa pulled out a card from Adam’s left pant pocket.

 

“Uh, this ID card is pretty dusty.”

 

“Can you still read it?”

 

“Wait,” Jessa called out for someone who wasn’t standing around in their group.

 

“Hey! Mira! You got some water I could use!”

 

“You don’t have to yell, Jess.” Mira handed a water bottle to Jessa. Jessa took a cloth from her pocket and wet it with the water. She began wiping Adam’s ID.

 

“Um, Galaxy Garrison Fighter Pilot- Age 31- um- oo! He was one of the top ranking pilots and-um-” She stopped. He took a breath of shock.

 

“Jessa, what is it?” She showed the card to Jonah and Adarien.

 

“It’s _him_.” Both boys took breaths of shock.

 

“No way.”

 

“Mr.Shirogane told us he died at the beginning of the war! How can he be here? Light Years away from Earth!” Adam felt two hands on his shoulders. The arms started shaking him back and forth.

 

“Hey! Wake up!”

 

“Adarien! Stop!” Someone pushed back Adarien.

 

“But he could have answers! Answers to where my dad is!” Jonah put his hands on Adarien’s shoulders.

 

“Yes, but you have to be patient. Have you learned nothing from your time at the Garrison?”

 

“Eh, kinda…” He hit the back of Adarien’s head.

 

“Ouch!”

 

Adam’s eyes started to open up. He expected to see a blue sky, but instead, the sky above him was a dusty sand color. A head popped up above his head. It was a young girl, possibly no older than 15, with light-brown hair, elf-like ears, and dark purple eyes. Her face was a familiar yet new face.

 

“Ah!” He popped up from his lying position. There were 5 teens surrounding him. The girl above him wore green armor, she seemed to be the youngest. There was a boy in red armor with black hair and blue eyes. Another boy next to him looked like a spitting image of a young James Griffin in black armor, there were slight differences in his appearance like his bluer eye color. There was a girl in yellow armor, she had a larger build than the others and looked about human except for her eyes which were yellow in appearance.

 

Finally, there was the one in the blue armor. She seemed to be the eldest with how she presented herself.

 

“Finally, you woke up. Mr.Adam Wheeler, correct?” said the one in the black.

 

“Uh, correct. Who might you and your companions be?”

 

“We cannot answer that. We will need to conduct an interrogation before we can reveal our identities. Now, why are you in this part of space? How are you alive?” These questions were creating more questions in Adam’s head. How was he alive? Where is he? How far away was he from Earth? Is Earth safe?

 

“Sir, answer the question.”

  
“I don’t know. I don’t know where I am. I don’t know what happened to me! All I remember is being shot at while fighting the Galra.” The group thought in silence.

 

“You can take off your helmet. The oxygen on Olkarion is similar to Earth’s. Many planets in this side of the universe do.”

 

Adam took off his helmet and took a deep breath, it was very much needed. The air was ever so slightly thicker, it was fresh air so he didn’t mind.

 

“He hasn’t aged at all…” Jessa sat down to think.

 

“Which gives a chance of time travel.” Mira sat next to her.

 

“Although, this has only worked on Adam. Which gives a question of why it worked on him and not on any other the fighter pilots?”

 

“Can I please ask who you are? You have my answers, no I want mine.” The leader in black looked at his team and they nodded back.

 

“I guess we do own you that. Ahem.” He stepped up to stand in front of Adam.

 

“We are the third generation of the Paladins of Voltron. I am Jonah Griffin, paladin of the black lion.”

 

“You’re James Griffin’s son, aren’t you?” Jonah nodded back.

 

“Yes, my father works at the Galaxy Garrison. You know him?” Adam nodded back.

 

“I was his teacher when he was a cadet. You are a spitting image of him.” Jonah sighed with a sad smile.

 

“I am told that much too often.” Despite looking like James, Jonah was nothing like his father. He was calm, patient, very formal. Like his father, he seemed to show natural leadership skills.

 

“This is my right-hand man, Adarien Chung. He pilots the red lion.”

 

“It’s an honor to meet you, sir. I have heard many stories about you from my mentor back on Earth, Takashi Shirogane.” The name was like a fresh breeze to Adam’s ears.

 

“How is Takashi?”

 

“Fine. His health has been stable the past few years.”

 

“That’s...good.” He’s home and health. All Adam would have wished for.

 

“This is Rowan Garrett, she pilots the yellow lion like her father. Who was in the second generation of Voltron.”

 

“When the yellow lion accepted me, I accepted her. I fight in my dad’s honor.” He wanted to ask what happened to her dad, but it seemed like a touchy subject they would get to later.

 

“This is Jessa Holt. She is the paladin of the green lion, like her aunt.” Wow, this generation has connections to the last. Jessa kept quiet as she was reviewing through something, but said one thing.

 

“Hi.”

 

“And finally, the paladin of the blue lion, Mira Kyle.” She sighed as she got up.

 

“Welcome back to the universe Adam.”

 

“And with that, these are the current paladins of Voltron.”

 

The ending didn’t explain everything though. What happened to the last generation? What are these kids fighting against? If not the Galra, then what are the running from?

 

“I still have several questions.” Jonah looked serious.

 

“We might have answers.”

 

“Okay, what happened to the last generation of paladins?”

 

All of a sudden there was a large explosion.

 

There’s _always_ a large explosion. Jonah thought hastily for a plan.

 

“Paladins! Get to your lions! Adam, ride in the red lion!” Adam did as instructed. He ran, following Adarien into the cockpit of the red lion. The lions awoke and shot into the sky fast.

 

“Aren’t you going to fight back?” Adarien looked at Adam like he was crazy.

 

“I know I’m kinda the dumb one, but ARe YOU CRAZY! What attacked us is too strong for us to fight!”

 

Adam looked through the window. Ship structures similar to the Galra ones chased after them. Adarien looked serious as he tried to avoid all the attacks.

 

“Hey! Rowan! I need a little help here!”

 

“On it!” The yellow lion shot out a giant laser, bigger than any Adam had ever seen at the Garrison. So this was the Altean technology Sam Holt kept talking about.

 

“Jonah! What’s the next plan?” The black lion was busy dodging itself, but Jonah still had some type of plan.

 

“Mira! Get a wormhole ready!”

 

“Okay!” The blue lion went into the front of their formation.

 

“Hurry!” Jessa yelled as the green lion shot vines to mess up the attackers.

 

“I’m getting at it.”

 

The space sky was filled with the lions trying to slow down the attacks just enough for them to get away. Suddenly a shining blue light burst into space.

 

“Hurry!” yelled Mira. The lions stopped attacking and went into what Adam presumed was the wormhole. Once Adarien got in as the last one in, the wormhole closed

 

The group was teleported into an unknown area of space.

 

Adam, confusing, afraid, and just exhausted in general, was not letting this go without question.

 

“What the quiznack just happened back there?!”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> 8/22/18 I had to edit Adam's age to be a little more accurate.


	2. the world as we know it

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam gets information, possibly more than what he wanted.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> wow, this blew up.
> 
> i mean, I know why. you guys are mad as hell of adam's fate in s7.
> 
> so thanks and enjoy!

“What the quiznak just happened?!” The lions started slowing down and the paladins began to calm down.

 

“Those, Adam, was the Gane. They’ve been chasing after us since our mission began.” Adarien explained.

 

“Why?” There was a bit of silence from all the paladins, but it was Jonah who answered first.

 

“ _ I don’t know _ .” Adam could tell a liar from a truth-teller, and Jonah was for sure lying about that answer. Although his fellow paladins agreed with that answer, so he didn’t ask any more questions on that matter.

 

“We’ll need a place for us and the lions to rest, we have had a tough day. Jessa, what’s the status of our location?”

 

“My sensors don’t pick up any Gane bases or drones. There is a nearby planet that seems to have been abandoned, we can shelter ourselves there.”

 

“Great.”

 

“I’ll be sending directions.” The directions to the planet were sent to the lions. The team made their way there.

 

On their way, Adam had so many thought running through his head. How much time did he really miss? How many people mourned for his death? Was Takashi there during the attacks? But most importantly, what happened to the past paladins? These thoughts kept spinning in his head.

 

“Uh, sir. We just landed, you can get out now.” Adarien’s voices broke his train of thoughts. The kid’s voice was a mixture of sweet but harsh, who did this kid have as parents?

 

“Um, thank you.” He got out of the red lion to see the other paladins already setting up a camp and that the ~~sun~~ light source was beginning to fade. Rowan was cooking up something that smelled amazing, Jessa was collecting firewood, Adarien was figuring out how they would light the fire, Mira was setting up tents, and Jonah was unpacking.

 

Everyone had something to do, except Adam. For once in his life he didn’t have a duty to do, a job to do to help, for once he just had to sit and wait.

 

Well, no. He’s had to sit and wait before, but not like this.

 

“Adam, you haven’t fully gained our trust, but you need to relax. Take in the world and don’t question it right now.” He turned around to see Rowan comforting him while making dinner. 

 

“It’s how I’ve dealt with all the crazy things that have been happening to me. First I get into the Galaxy Garrison, then I’m chosen to be the yellow paladin after my dad-” She stopped herself.

 

“After what?” Rowan looked back at the dinner.

 

“It’s not my place to tell what happened.”

 

“But it was your dad, right? Don’t you have the right to tell what happens to your family?”

 

“Legally, not really. But the food is ready!” 

 

The team sat around the fire and ate. They talked and told stories of their childhood and before they took in the life of a paladin. Adam had to realize quickly, they were still kids in a way. They sacrificed being normal teenagers to be heroes to hundreds of eyes.

 

After they washed their own dishes, the paladins went to sleep in their lions with Mira and Rowan sleeping in tents.

 

Jonah was the last one left at the fireplace with Adam.

 

“If you have any questions, you are free to ask them now.” Adam looked at the young paladin and took a deep breath.

 

“How many years has it been since I ‘passed away’?” 

 

“It’s been 20 years.”

 

“What happened after?”

 

“Days after you and your team’s passing, Voltron had arrived to Earth. Team Voltron, my father and his pilot team, and the mega-ship the Garrison built, the Atlas, worked and fought hard to defeat the Galra attack. Together and with the help with universal resistances they brought back universal peace.”

 

“Up until 5 years ago, that’s how it was. The Voltron paladins lived their normal lives as well as defending other home planets from attackers who tried to restart the Galra Empire. All who were on the Galra’s side and fought for the Galra were put into universal prisons. But then something happened.” The air around them started feeling tenser. 

 

“The Gane Forces were the first enemy forces to defeat the Second Generation Voltron. It is presumed that is because the black lion  _ never _ appeared during the battle, that the Gane forces kidnapped him. After the first battle with the Gane forces, the paladins became unresponsive and all the remaining paladins, Lance McClain, Katie Holt, Hunk Garrett, and Princess Allura of Altea, fell into a coma.”

 

“The Gane forces began stuffing all races of aliens on Earth and freed Galra prisoners. The lions stopped working and without the paladins waking up, they couldn’t be used to defeat the Gane-Galra alliance. Until last year.”

 

“A year ago, the lions awoke to the five of us and we were forced into the lives of paladins to save the universe. Adarien, Rowan, Jessa, and I were all students at the US Garrison and our studies were sped up. Mira was a cargo pilot from the Latin America Garrison base and the blue lion reacted to her when she was there for a visit. She was forced into fighter pilot training.”

 

“Every since when snuck out of Earth into space, the Gane forces have been after us. No one knows who is leading them, but we do know that they know every Voltron trick by heart.”

 

“So you can’t fight against them because they know your every possible move.” Jonah nodded.

 

“They don’t lie when you were said to learn quickly.”

 

“Don’t know why they would.” Jonah laughed a little.

 

“You have any other questions?” Adam went through his thoughts. He remembered something Adarien said while Adam was still out.

 

“So, the Gane forces kidnapped Adarien’s dad?” Jonah’s face went low. His face went from seriousness to a little bit of sadness.

 

“Adarien’s story is one that even to him isn’t completely clear.” Adam was confused for a second but listen in. Jonah looked around to make sure no one else was listening to their conversation, especially Adarien.

 

“There are things that are kept confidential to the Garrison. Adarien is a Garrison biological secret.”

 

“What?”

 

“Just a couple years after the war, the Garrison began expanding what they experimented on. They had been trying to figure out how to create child made out of only male or only female DNA. The experiments were sketchy, they stole DNA from Garrison workers. Until their first successful experiment.” Adam started piecing together the detail of what Jonah was telling him.

 

“Adarien is just a successful experiment in the Garrison’s eyes, wasn’t he?” Jonah nodded.

 

“Yeah, he wasn’t told about to his biological fathers until after he was ‘born’.”

 

“Anyone I would know?”

 

“Kinda, the men whom the scientist stole DNA from were Keith Kogane and Lance McClain. When the found out they were the biological parents of this experiment baby, they were furious. The Garrison shut down the project immediately and Project Laith was given to Team Voltron to raise. That’s when he was given a new name, Adarien Kogane.”

 

“Keith was the paladin of the black lion before I was, he fathered Adarien more than anyone and no one ever told Adarien that Lance was also his father. When Keith disappeared and it was suspected that he was kidnapped, Adarien was crushed. Ever since then he’s been trying his best to try to find him.”

 

“When Adarien was chosen by the red lion. The Garrison forced him to change his last name to Chang and after the paladins went into a coma Shirogane trained him and raised him.” Adam wasn’t expecting a life story. The stories of what changed in the universe was so new to him and there were things that still needed to be explained. The technology was so different when he looked through the red lion. He knew Sam Holt explained how some of it worked but this was all so new to look at.

 

“So all of you were affected by the paladins’ loss.” 

 

“We all were. They were the ‘Legendary Defenders of the Universe’. When you lose a hero hope is lost too, it’s never as simple a story could tell.” With all this talking from Jonah, only one thing was in Adam’s mind at this point.

 

“How do you know all this information?” Jonah had a small laugh.

 

“I grew up in the Garrison halls. If I had a dollar for every time I broke into one of the information archives growing up, you’d have enough to have a shopping spree. 

 

“You know you could’ve gotten banned from the Garrison for that?”

 

“Eh, my dad had to tie a few ropes and I had to sign a couple contracts. Their punishments had softened since Katie Holt started officially working at the Garrison.”The silence with the sounds that seemed similar to crickets to fill the complete silence. 

 

“Adam, you should go rest. I know this is a lot of information to take in, you’ve missed 20 years after all. Go rest in the tent on the right.” Jonah pointed to the dark yellow tent.

 

“Um, yeah. Thank you for helping me.” Adam got up and walked towards the tent, Jonah would stay at the fireplace for another hour. He left the fire when everyone fell asleep.

* * *

The old man’s wheelchair was getting a little rusty these days, but he didn’t mind. Shiro liked hearing the squeakiness, it filled the silence as he did his daily routine. He grabbed his bag and rolled out of his home.

 

_ Visit the paladins _ .

 

Every morning he would visit where the paladins were placed for the last 5 years. They were in a private room at the Garrison medical rooms, all five were in similar holding spaces like the healing pods in the Castle of Lions. All sleeping peacefully.

 

He tapped the lids of each of them to check their statuses, every day they were all stable.

 

He would tell them what would be happening during that day. It made him feel like he was talking to them casually.

 

“I miss you guys. The Garrison is kinda quiet without you.” 

 

_ Teacher time! _

 

He would leave to go teach a class. They were all different than the last time he had taught a class year ago, but he liked it that way. The change was nice when you’re forced to never take another space mission.

 

He had his favorite students. He won’t say it out loud though.

 

Dalia Winter in his 2nd period class was like a female Lance. Which made sense as she had admired him very much. She would become something big one day.

 

Gerrard Hutchison in his 5th period was the perfect student that reminding Shiro of himself waay too much. He always had to make sure that the student believed in himself, never to give up on his dreams. He had potential, just had to believe in himself.

 

After the school day he would stay after school for 30 minutes, staying to make sure any students who wanted to ask him a question in private had their chance. Today it was the new student, Azriel Park.

 

He just came in to ask about a difficult question on the homework. Shiro recognized the problem, one a certain someone had trouble on.

 

“It’s easy when you have the right formula.” He showed the child how to work the problem and in about 5 minutes the kid found out how to solve it himself.

“Thank you very much, Mr.Shirogane!”

 

“Your welcome Park.” Shiro looked at the time and packed up his stuff to go to one last stop before going on home.

 

It was pretty far from the classrooms. So he liked watching all the ruckus around his environment. His new arm was best at rolling his chair with one arm, so it gave him time relax. Then he was finally there.

 

_ The memorial. _

 

He came here everyday for one person. He looked for the same photo, it never moved in the last 20 years.

 

He looked at Adam’s face in the photo. The same as always.

 

“Hey, today I saw this kid that kinda reminded me on you.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I wanted this fic to have a LOT of connections. So all our new paladins have connections.


	3. i thought i could

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm slowly losing the inspiration for the middle section of this story, but I do have something I want you to answer at the end.

As Adam laid in that sleeping bag, his couldn't seem to sleep. This was all too much to take in, he didn't belong in this universe. He should be  **_dead_ ** . It all seemed like some strange dream, was this what they afterlife was like? Or was this truly his reality? 

 

He pinched himself just to check.

 

It hurt a little, meaning this was really the reality he was stuck in. Adam just took the pillow over his head, he was getting too stressed over all of this. But could you blame him?

 

He thought he was going to die, to become one of many casualties in that war. He didn't think he would become a time traveler. To be honest, being dead would have been much simpler, at least you aren't thrown into a world that you have no clue how it works because everything you know is probably outdated.

 

There was that one lingering question. 

 

Does he stay in this time or does he try to get back to his time? If he stayed here, how difficult would his life become when he begins to settle in? If he wanted to go back, how could he? If he did come back, how much time would have been passed?

 

It was just a spiral of thoughts that he couldn't get out of his head.

 

Then there was Takashi. 

 

Adam hadn't seen his face for so long, only having photos to see it every day. He wondered how he looked now, how much he had aged. Guess he’s kind of an old man now if you call 50 years old becoming one with the elderly. A smile came on his face, it was then filled with shame.

 

Words filled his head, it was a phrase that kept playing since Takashi was ‘dead’.

 

_ “...don't expect me to be here when you come back…” _

 

Adam kinda said that to be vague. It was one of those ‘interpret how you will’ sorta phrases. He expected that Takashi would come back and Adam wouldn't be there rushing to his arms when he came back. But he didn't expect this.

 

Adam literally isn't there when Takashi came back.

 

There was some guilt in his heart, he wondered how much that would've pained all his loved one. He knew that during the war you can't mourn until there is peace, but who said Takashi  _ would  _ mourn. Adam was the one who broke up with  _ him _ .

 

He fell asleep eventually. He kept playing back happier times so that he would dig himself into a ‘guilt hole’ as his coworkers said.

 

Dear lord, let there be a space therapist.

* * *

Jonah was the last to go to sleep. He was always the last one to go to sleep. He always felt like he needed to plan everything, but with another person added to their crew by accident, he needed to replan what would be going on. He didn't have enough information on Adam unlike how he didn't for the rest of the paladins.

 

Yes, it does make Jonah look like a stalker. When you have an addiction to information, it  _ always  _ makes you look like a stalker. Sometimes it scared his on how much he knew the paladins more than they knew themselves. But he liked that control, which is why he felt like he didn't deserve to fight.

 

In war, you can't control everything. The enemy knew their every possible move, the enemy was in control. 

 

That's when he had to remember who the enemy was.

 

The world has a reason for everything, Keith Kogane’s reason was to not only be the former paladin of the red and black lion but to also become an accidental villain in someone else’s story.

 

Jonah put the pieces together on his own for once. This was after their second time dodging the Gane Forces and doing a little research with the little access to Garrison Archives he had. They were far away from Earth, so the only files that were available were those about previous wars.

 

He looked at the one about the Galra Attack against Earth. He found out that it was Keith Kogane that defeated Sendek. He found it strange that this was such a looked over detail in teachings of this, so he didn't more research by assumption. He thought out the most ridiculous ways something could've happened.

 

Then something had just clicked.

 

Before Keith’s disappearance before the first battle against Gane, he started acting strangely. As if there was something in his head trying to control him. The feeling was occasional, but when he did act like that, he was more aggressive during training, he acted rasher than his normally relaxed actions. It was strange, but, for some reason, no one seemed to care. Not even Keith himself.

 

Jonah started doing his own research on their first successful return to Earth, six months into their journey. He learned more about the witch Haggar, who was never captured, found, or seen since after the war ended. She learned from stories Adarien would endlessly tell him from Shiro, that she controlled Shiro by doing something to his body and cloning it. It was some type of advanced yet old-fashioned Altean magic.

 

Fucking magic. Jonah hated when thing included magic since they didn't have any record of how it worked, it just did.

 

He never told anyone on the team about how much he knew. He never said out loud what his theories were, being shut down was his worst nightmare. He kept all the information and the theory of Kogane leading the Gane Forces to himself. I mean, he  _ was  _ tempted to tell someone like his dad, the parallels in name to the  _ Kogane  _ and  _ Gane  _ were just clues to confirm it all.

 

Yet he kept it to himself. He did that a lot must be a black paladin thing.

 

He splashed water on the fire and watched the steam rise. Once it was gone, he went to bed.

 

_ ‘We need to get back to Earth if I spend this much time holding everything in then call me a treasure chest.’ _

 

The next morning the paladins seemed to be in a happier mood, as this was one of the first good nights of sleep they've had in quite a while. There was no one to attack them in the middle of their slumber, no life-threatening creatures that were left on the abandoned planets, and most definitely no distress signals.

 

For once they just had a normal sleep.

 

Then morning came and it all came crashing down.

 

“Oh my fucking god! I thought this could be the one time our lives weren’t in danger!” The paladins were shoving their belonging into their lions and Adam shoved the containments of whatever was in the tent into the black lion like it was nothing. Laser beams shot at them as they rushed to their stations.

 

“I escaped death once, I AM NOT GOING TO SEE IF I CAN DO IT AGAIN!” Adam just jumped into the black lion this time and the paladins jumped into their respective lions and then they blasted off. 

 

“Guy, you’re gonna need to on defense, it’ll take a little for Blue to charge up another wormhole!” Mira was trying her best to get as much power on Blue as she could.

 

“Okay, but we can only hold them off for so long!” 

 

“Don’t worry, Blue will be ready in 5 minutes!”

 

The defense started. But they were losing as the forces were programmed to be resistant to their attacks. This was all going so fast, Blue wasn’t creating that wormhole anytime soon.

 

“Do you think we can do it this time?” yelled Rowan. She was attempting to smash the attacking drones, but she just could reach them without Yellow take a substantial amount of damage.

 

“We might as well try!”

 

“Jonah, thoughts?” 

 

“Adam, I advise you to take a seat, the speed will accelerate soon.” Adam sat his ass down and held onto the lion.

 

“FORM VOLTRON!”

 

Lights the colors of the lions shined and the lions turned into body parts, legs, body, head, and arms. As beautiful of a sight, it was to see, Adam wondered what this would look like since this took a little while. 

 

“Finally! We had a successful transformation!” Jess yelled from his lion.

 

“Why hello there, Voltron.” A sudden voice came through the speakers in the lions.

 

A large ship similar to the design of Sendek’s ships appeared from the darkness of space. It was bigger, no doubt, but the resemblance was there.

 

“Who is calling?!” The person who was laughing showed their face through the transmission. It was a man with a familiar face, an undercut haircut, and a mix between Galra and Human eyes.

 

“Why, I think you know who I am.” He looks directly at them. There was trembling in the voice of one of the paladins, one they all identified as Adarien. 

 

“Dad?”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Choose Adam's ending! I still don't have a clear idea of what to do so all opinions are needed.
> 
> https://www.strawpoll.me/16265856


	4. work work

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Adam is basically Shiro in these situations.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I really just want to get to the end of this because I have like 3 alternate endings in my mind, but I know I have to get that middle part done. 
> 
> Also, updates will be slower as I had just started my sophomore year of high school(I'm gonna drive one day!)
> 
> P.S. screw AP classes

No one said that time travel made anything any easier for anyone. Now, while knowing this, if there was one way to describe Adam’s thoughts in the last day and a half, it would be,

 

_ WHAT THE FUCK? _

 

This timeline was  _ way _ too detailed for him to understand and this whole storyline was one he  _ definitely  _ didn’t belong in. But alas, here he was, in the black lion, looking at this evil version of Keith trying to destroy the paladins. He barely knew anything about the Voltron of his time except that it was a super weapon and the paladins (which he learned was second gen) were those cadets that escaped the Garrison all those years ago. But these paladins were just shit at teamwork when they had their personal problems in their heads, especially Adarien.

 

Voltron did make a couple good hits on the mega ship, so they were that shit. Although, Adarien was always losing focus, forcing Jonah to yell at him. When he was in focus his attacks weren’t very smooth or strong, like he was scared to make a real hit. The real stars of the show were Jessa and Rowan. Their attacks together made up the majority of the hits, making the lefties more confident in the fight. Mira was once again trying her best, she did well for someone who only had a couple months of fighter pilot training. Although with the lack of support on where she was fighting, it lead to the right side of Voltron being a little slow.

 

They still were losing, having the mega ship come closer and closer. Adam was not dying today, not again at least. Wait, did he die and come back to life in the middle of space? Or did the blast send him here? He didn't know, but he, unfortunately, didn't have time.

 

He tried his best, on the whole, staying up while in a moving war machine and yelled to where the other paladins could hear his voice from Jonah’s radio system.

 

“You guys are supposed to be heroes! If you don’t have the balls to some good damage then what’s the point?” Jonah just stared at Adam and then looked back at the fight with a smile. Adam, on the other hand, felt like he was just a tad bit harsh, but this was his life at stake so whatever.

 

“He’s like a most honest Shiro.” he whispered to himself. Adarien put a serious face on and contacted the rest of his team.

 

“He’s right, I’m just being stuck in emotions, we need to fight to get some explanations!” 

 

“Hell yeah! Adarien is back to normal! He’s not being moody!” yelled from the green lion.

 

“Let's be honest, that was the fastest mood change I have ever seen this boy do.” Mira said. For some reason, it was almost like she could hear his eye roll.

 

“Alright team, let’s do this. Adarien, Jessa, your bayards!” The two took out their bayards and pushed them into their place. A pair of dual swords appeared on the robot.

 

“Okay, that was so cool!” The fight continued and Voltron fought well. 

 

On ‘Keith’s side of the fight, he controlled ship and was slowly struggling. His eyes were becoming most Galra like, but he didn’t notice. His skin began tinting purple by the second, the longer he was angry the more the purple appeared.

 

“Arg!” 

 

If there was one thing that was quickly noticed and surprising was that he worked alone, there were no signs of life in the spacecraft that the team destroyed. He was controlling all of these himself, but how? There was no time to question how a single man could control  _ so many fighter ships.  _

 

This man was out to kill them and he didn’t seem to recognize their history together, seeing his little to no reaction to Adarien’s presence. Like he was a different person.

 

Jonah confirmed the theory he had in his mod for months.

 

The fight went on and on, until suddenly,

 

everything 

went

black.

 

* * *

  
  


_ Three weeks. _

 

_ It had been three weeks since the battle against Sendek had ended. Shiro went right back to work after the official memorial for fights that had passed away during the battle, distractions were what kept this man moving along in life. He would have loved to get some time to himself, maybe mourn properly. But when there is still a war to fight he had to move on. _

 

_ He still did mourn but in a different way. _

 

_ Every day he would visit the flower shop that had started up and pick a flower closest to a lily, as many of Earth's natural flowers had been obliterated during the invasion human restored to the alien flowers. He had been told the flower was called a Minkera. _

 

_ He'd pick one and go over to to the little Garrison officers memorial, find Adams nameplate and feel like he was updating his dead ex on current events. _

 

_ “Hey, Adam.” Shiro placed the flower down. The room was silent as it was closing in on official curfew. _

 

_ “Today we made a lot of improvements on the Atlas’ speed, they even think it might be able to handle a teludav. Just to make things easier for travel.” He could hear his own echo in the room. _

 

_ “Iverson offered me my old teaching job back, he said I can go back to teaching after the war is over. I'm thinking I should dye my hair back to black, kids might wonder why a 27-year-old has a full head of gray hair.” _

 

_ “I still want to enjoy space though. I know you'd probably babble at me saying that I already died in space once, why go back? I just am so fascinated of this endless world, I want to know more.” He looked right at that picture. _

 

_ “I kinda miss you telling me to not do anything too stupid.” He touched the photo lightly and closed his eyes. _

 

_ “You were still with me all the way. I honestly wonder how you were able to do it sometimes, how you were able to handle me until my last-” He paused there and opened his eyes. _

 

_ “I guess it's not the best to talk about that.” He looked at his phone for the time. _

 

**12:02 PM**

**_5 unread text from Keith_ **

**_2 unread text from Lance_ **

**_1 missed call from Pidge_ **

**_3 missed calls from Hunk_ **

 

_ He smiled as he saw the notifications. His team grew in their own rights with their own experiences that molded them into the amazing fighters they were, yet that came to him for advice. He just felt that joy that someone could trust him so much. Shiro looked back at the nameplate. _

 

_ “Talk to you tomorrow, Adam. My children are in need of me. Have a good night...Officer Wheeler.”  _

 

_ Walking away he opened up one of the text from Lance. _

* * *

**Lance**

_ Dad, are you really missing out on a chance to write a mustache on a sleeping Keith? _

* * *

 

_ He looked at the text questioningly. _

 

_ “Okay, I have to see this.” _


	5. only just a dream

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Keith captures the paladins and Adam, but still has plenty of plans he's not saying anything about.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> More plot! I'm honestly wondering if I should create a spin-off just focusing off of the new paladins after Adam leaves.
> 
> Yeah spoiler alert I'm making Adam go back into his time, but I'm pretty sure that's what ya'll wanted.

Now you might be thinking, if Keith was working alone, then how did he make the alliance with the galra work? Well, he uses them as servants and drains the quintessence out of the one who disobeys his orders(there were  _ many  _ who did). You know, the casual bad guy stuff.

 

Now, as a casual bad guy, Keith has taken all the members of Voltron and sent them to the prison as he was making a plan of what to do with them. Adam, on the other hand, was sent to a very different place. He didn’t expect to find his one of his former teachers, who was also deemed as dead, in the Black Lion like he was the replacement Shiro for this team Voltron. 

 

So he sent him to the one place he did know to put him.

 

The memory chambers.

 

“Hey! What’s going on? Keith, come on I know we haven’t talked in a while but snap out of it!” Keith’s galra servants strapped Adam and his distressed Garrison uniform to the table that was placed upward. Keith eyed him, he looks like he never aged since the day Keith left the Garrison, the first time.

 

“You think I don’t know what I’m doing here?” He walked up to the man who was now fully strapped down. He tapped Adam’s forehead with a single finger.

 

“I know exactly what I’m doing. You just have to wait and see.” Keith slammed the lid of the what was now a pod. He could hear the ‘sss’ of gas being inserted into the pod. He could hear Adam’s screaming before it silenced. He left the room.

 

It was too much for him to see.

 

Now on the paladins.

 

“Camblek.” He called the servant next to him who immediately responded back.

 

“Y-yes, sir!” He looked at the galra, he was skinny for someone arrest for being in a space pirate crew.

 

“You, Flimzoid, and Hauntor take the paladins to the meeting quarters. I would like to have a word with them before I figure out what to do with them.” The Galra saluted to his leader.

 

“Yes, sir!” He ran to go find the other Galra servants and headed to the prison quarters.

 

Keith went to his private space and sat there, waiting for something. He looked at a mirror and still saw himself with the patchy purple skin and the whites of his eyes now yellow. He stayed like that, waiting. The skin faded back into his original pale skin, his eyes turn right back to normal. He sighed to himself as he fell on his bed.

 

“What am I going to do?” Before he could've done anything more, he felt a surge of pain on his face. Looking back at the mirror, he saw the patch reappearing and his eyes becoming more Galra.

 

_ ‘Already,’  _ He heard a call from the servant he had sent out earlier.

 

“Sir, are you ready for your meeting with the paladins?” He opened the door.

 

“Yes, did you make sure they were all handcuffed?” The Galra nodded furiously.

 

“Of course, sir!” 

 

“Lead me.” The Galra did his orders and lead Keith into the room in which the paladins were moved into. He opened the door for Keith and there they were.

 

Five helpless paladins who didn't know what they signed up for when they accepted their roles. He saw the familiar faces, ones he knew from the past.

 

“Paladins of Voltron. It's good to see you all tried this battle, or else I wouldn't have fought as well.” Jonah Griffin's handcuffs were attached to the left wall along with Adarien. He growled as the emperor talked. The red paladin sat there in silence, not knowing who the man he called his father so long ago became.

 

“Why the quiznak are we here?! Let us go!” Keith laughed, but the paladins felt like it wasn't his laugh anymore. It didn't seem like the familiar joyful sound they knew.

 

“Let you go? Now, why would I do that when I finally have the Lions in my  _ safe  _ protection?” Rowan, Jessa, and Mira were on the left wall. The three girls stayed silent as they listened closely, all figuring out a way out and Keith’s motive.

 

“Safe? The lions are safe when they aren’t in cap-”

 

“Are your lions being attacked?” Jonah went silent. It took a while to realize that Keith still wouldn’t hurt the lions himself, no matter what happened to him.

 

“No.” Keith smiled, but it didn’t help the unpleasant mood of the room.

 

“Then you will stay my captives until we arrive to Earth, there you will  _ not  _  be given back the lions.” As Keith was about to leave, he heard someone speak up.

 

“Dad, what happened to you?” Keith didn’t look back at Adarien. 

 

“You’ll find out very soon, son. Servants, take them back to the cells.”

* * *

Adam was pretty sure he wasn’t dead. I mean, this spacey place has to be a dream state, right? Well, you can’t kill off someone twice, that’s whatever good writer knows.

 

So, yeah, he wasn’t dead, but he didn’t feel alive either.

 

_ Live for the moments you can’t put in words _

 

His stance got defensive.

 

“Who said that?” he shouted into the spacey abyss. There was no response, but a dark figure did slowly appear.

 

“Show yourself!” Okay, you want to know something? Adam is just going by the lines of movies and TV shows he had seen of this situation, that’s where most of his words are coming from. He never thought that moment would happen to him.

 

“Just wait until the wave hits.” The voice sounded familiar, but he couldn’t identify whose it was. 

 

All of a sudden a huge wave of light sprouted from behind the figure. Adam fearfully began to run away.

 

“Don’t run. It’ll only make this harder, man.” Adam still kept running, but the light was too fast. The hit him and he fell to the starlight filled ground.

* * *

When he opened his eyes, he found himself on Earth, in the Garrison. He looked at his surroundings and saw that behind him was a young Takashi and a younger version of himself. Takashi was crying, Adam knew what this event was.

 

“My parents are dead!” The young Adam looked at him shocked. 

 

“W-what?” Takashi gripped his hands on Adam’s shoulders.

 

“Dead!” He fell down to his knees. This was the weakest he had ever seen his friend when he got the news his parents were killed in a major accident in Japan and he was all the way in America.

 

“Takashi, calm down! Breathe!” He sat Takashi down against the wall, it was lunch period but all that mattered at that moment was helping his friend with his loss. Takashi began to calm as he followed Adam on breathing.

 

“Okay, so explain to me what happened.” Takashi started trembling again but kept stable instead of breaking out into tears again.

 

“My parents were walking from the supermarket and then a huge truck crashed into them and a corner store. Their lives, as well as many others, were lost.” Small tears started appearing and Adam took out a small packet of tissues and gave on to Takashi.

 

“Thanks.” He wiped his tears.

 

“Now I don’t know what to do. My scholarship will only last until the end of next semester, I don’t have any money to afford the Garri-”

 

“Stop. Rethink yourself.” He held Takashi’s face to look at his own.

 

“You are the most talented person in this school, if anyone deserves to be here, it should be you. I know that your parents were important to you, but so are your dreams.” He let go of his face as he had realized how awkward it was and got up. He took his hand out for Takashi who was still sitting.

 

“Now come with me, we will get this all situated.” He took his hand.

 

“Yeah, we will.”

* * *

He saw the scene disappear and here he was again in this spacey abyss. The dark figure was now visible and it was a man no older than he was. He had those dark blue eyes that were visible before, now his brown hair and tanned skin had shown. He was sitting criss-cross on the ground.

 

“So, you know what that happened?” The man held a goofy smile. Adam didn’t say anything to him.

 

“That was the day he knew he could depend on you. You’re a good guy, Mr.Wheeler, that’s why you need to get out of here.” 

 

“W-wh- who are you? Where am I?” Tha man just smiled again.

 

“Welcome to the astral plane, you aren’t dead, but you’re not alive. Keith was able to find a way to put you here by force. You know you’re here for a reason.” Adam was even more confused.

 

“What? Who are  _ you _ ? What is the reason that I’m here?” The man stood up and began to walk away.

 

“Mr.Wheeler, you’ll find out soon. I’ll see you later.” He disappeared and another person appeared.

 

It was a young-looking woman with white hair, dark skin, and wore a long, princess-like, dress. She was stunning and wore a crown that seemed to have a space for a little jewel that wasn’t there.

 

Adam was even more confused.

 


	6. depends

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Team Voltron learns the value of teamwork and using their strengths.
> 
> Adam is stuck in the astral plane tho.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've decided to put this work as my first priority to finish. So, more updates will be coming a little faster.
> 
> Also, I love(hate) sophomore year slight heartbreak.

As they sat there in the cell together, team Voltron had finally felt like they failed. They failed at saving the universe and being the guardians that the universe needed. They failed their families who were expecting so much from them, yet they were failing. For once they had the feeling of a true failure.

 

“It's over, isn't it?” asked Mira. Her mature self was fading as tears began drew ing around her eyes.

 

“No, this can't be happening!” Jonah kept banging his body against the locked door. He too was losing the calm and collected person he was before.

 

“Jonah, stop.” Adarien calmly got into his friend’s way. The black paladin stopped and looked angrily at his friend.

 

“ ‘Dare get out of the way.” They looked at each other eye to eye.

 

“No.”

 

“What?”

 

“No. This isn't the right thing to do. Building up your anger and trying to do something irrational isn't what a leader should do, honestly, it's what you expect  _ me  _  to be doing.” Jonah softened his position. Adarien was being a leader, just like his dads were.

 

“Adarien is right, for once. We have to find some way to get out of here safely. If we want to escape, we can have any of us injured.” Jessa was having a bit of an analytical moment. Figuring out every possible way something could work out.

 

“Jonah, recall as many tricks Voltron or the Lions have done in past years. We could use those tricks and tips to our advantage.” Jonah sat down and closed his eyes, finding his focus.

 

“How about our new friend? Officer Adam is still on the ship, who knows what Keith has done to him. He obviously doesn't belong in this timeline, we have to bring back balance.” Mira had a quick idea, wiping the tears off her face, she quickly suggests.

 

“Then we have to find a way to break out first! Then we can contact the lions after that grab Adam in whatever state he would be in and wormhole to Earth. This is the longest Blue has been able to rest, she had to be able to wormhole us is a farther distance!” 

 

“Good idea!” Jonah popped open his eyes.

 

“Jonah, what do you have?” Rowan was suddenly feeling a little sweatier around her arms. The nervous thoughts of every possible way their plans will go completely wrong went through her head like crazy.

 

“Okay, so the paladins of the last Gen were able to contact their lions during the war. They had telepathically controlled them until they could've broken themselves out Sendek’s prison.”

 

“Then that’s what we’ll do!” Rowan could take that! All the ‘what if’ situations came flashing and she could tell that she had sweated off his cuffs. She put both hands on her head.

 

“Guys! What if this doesn't work out? What are we going to do then? Will we find another plan only for it to be too late and we’ll lose our total control of the Lions once Keith drops us at Earth and -”

 

“Rowan!” She heard the shouting from all her friends/teammates. She looked at them with her mind scrambled.

 

“What?” All four pointed, while they were still cuffed, at the moist cuffs that laid there on the ground under the half-balmeran. She looked back at her arms and hands which were soaking wet with sweat, her face flushed in embarrassment. 

 

“What the-”

 

“FOR ONCE ROWAN’S PANIC HAVE BEEN WORTH IT!” yelled Adarien. 

 

“You think this is a good thing? ‘Dare I literally just used my gross sweat to get out of handcuffs and you think this is good? I'm the weakest I this team!” The team looked confused until Adarien explained himself.

 

“Ro’ you are the  _ most physically fit  _ out of all out us. Your Balmeran genes make you like 10x stronger than an average human! You can be the one who breaks us out through the door! Also please get me out of these cuffs because these are so  _ itchy _ !” Rowan giggled at Adarien’s explanation. She pounded her first to her hand, feeling the force she gave off.

 

“Guess I was worrying for nothing.” She walked towards the door and began pulling it open. She had the door opened about a foot in, it was enough for the whole team to fit through. There were guards along their hallway, but the paladins easily overpowered them, even when cuffed. Rowan broke through everyone’s cuffs and they ran around to find Adam.

 

“This place is huge! How are we going to navigate our way through?” questioned Mira.

 

“We can at least try.” For once, Jonah and Adarien led the group around the ship.

 

* * *

 

Adam looked beyond confused as he looked at the woman that popped out of nowhere. It wasn’t like she was threatening(on the contrary she had a warm and welcoming aura), it was that he was really questioning the logic. Then again, him time traveling didn’t really make much logic either.

 

“Hello there. I’ve heard much about you.” Her voice had a slight English accent. 

 

“What?” She showed a warm smile.

 

“You’ll find a way to get out, to get us all back to where we belong.” The light reappeared.

 

“What do you mean?” The last thing he saw before being hit with the light was her smile turning sad.

 

* * *

  
  


Adam found himself in a mostly bare room from where he was looking. He turned around to see Takashi and Iverson in front of the Garrison Memorial for lost fighters. The man had a full head of white hair, strange as he had only been gone for 6 years. He listened slowly at what was happening.

 

He expected this to be a conversation between Iverson and Takashi on how many lives the Garrison had lost in this war, but there was a special detail Adam was forgetting.

 

“Adam...I’m so sorry.” For a quick moment there, Adam had forgotten that everyone thought he was dead. The situation quickly changed as he realized this wasn’t about Iverson at this moment, this was Takashi mourning the loss of Adam, like how Adam mourned the loss of Takashi.

 

He walked towards where his name stone was. A picture of his first day working at the Garrison was shown, Takashi’s hand slowly going over the carved in letters of Adam’s name. Iverson had said something, but Adam couldn't pay attention to that. 

 

The memory faded as Adam placed his own hand on top of Takashi’s, his hand going through like he was a ghost.   
  


* * *

 

He had opened his eyes to see the woman again.

 

“You were always in his thoughts, especially after the war.” She sat there peacefully, flowers surrounded her dress. The plane seemed calmer, less stress filled.

 

“Why am I here? Why am I so important to all of this?” She picked a flower and stood up to give it to him.

 

“You might know it yet, but you are going to change history.” Adam had a low chuckle.

 

“I'm guessing being able to time travel will have to do something with that?” She shook her head.

 

“Not as big as what will come in in the future.”

 

“But I'm already i-”

 

“Not this future. Your future.” She walked away and began disappearing.

 

“Wait! What’s your nam-” Before he could finish she disappeared and in her place was a man who had a stronger build, his baby face made it pretty obvious who it was. Adam remembered teaching him at the Garrison before his disappearance. Hunk Garrett was no longer the boy who didn't know he was capable of so much, though. Now he was a grown man, a hero is what Adam had heard.

 

“Hello, Mr.Wheeler! Good to see you.” 

 

Kind as always.

 

He simply just waved before the next light appeared, no words.

 

* * *

 

He found himself in the classroom he worked in. It was full of students, younger versions of what soon would become future Garrison workers. Most became technicians, a couple lower classed fighter pilots, and a couple that would not continue the full Garrison program.

 

Right in front of him was a familiar mullet. Keith was only in his class the second semester of his first year, the first he was in a fighter pilot class Takashi was teaching. All of his students' schedules had a change when he left for Kerberos. 

 

When Adam would come home during those days, he always felt like there was something missing, until he saw a small gold band laying on the kitchen counter with a note next to it. It had been there for a week now, Adam never touched it or even read the note, he had already known this would happen and already had an idea of what the note said.

 

But enough talk of his home, he was in his classroom. Teaching the class about visual symbols they would see when flying a ship. Keith sat in the classroom looking blankly at the window like a cheesy anime emo. He didn’t seem to be paying attention to what Adam was saying, or even the rules and expectations on the new project.

 

“When you leave please pick up the rubric for the project to help.” The bell rang and students began leaving and taking the rubric. Keith packed his stuff slowly and went straight to the door,

 

“Keith, may I speak to you for a moment?” Keith, annoyed, turned around.

 

“What is it?” Adam grabbed a chair and put in front of his desk.

 

“Sit.” Keith rolled his eyes and reluctantly sat in the chair.

 

“What do you want, Adam?” Adam let the fact that Keith didn’t call him ‘Mr. Wheeler’ pass as he knew he had to get used to this.

 

“Keith, you’re a great student, but since last week you’ve been falling behind much farther than your other grades. I expect the best that you can do, I know  _ what  _ you can do.” 

 

“I want to be a pilot, not an academic genius, okay?” Adam sighed.

 

“Keith, to be able to pass the Garrison cadet program you have to be both an excellent pilot, which I know you are, and academically above average.” Keith kept his hands crossed.

 

“Is this behavior caused by the fact that Shiro is on the Kerberos mission?” Keith’s eyes perked up.

 

“Keith, I know that not seeing or hearing from a person you care about is hard to deal with, but you have to remember that he’ll come back.”

 

“And what if he doesn’t?”

 

“This is a mission to retrieve space rocks, I’m sure he’ll be back.”   
  
“Will you be there to see him?” Adam’s words stopped. Keith knew about Adam and Shiro’s break up, he knew it hit Shiro pretty hard, but that he had to stay positive for the mission.

 

“I-I don’t know.” Keith kept his blank look, but this time his eye showed some disappointment and tones of upset.

 

“Well, you’re dismissed.” Keith got up and began walking towards the door.

 

“Keith.” He stopped for one second to hear what Adam had to say.

 

“Don’t forget the rubric, the project’s due next week.”

 

That was one of the last civil conversations he had with the cadet. The week after their talk, all the members of the Kerberos mission were pronounced dead. At first, he was upset. But then he started getting suspicious as he reflected on his own words.

 

_ “This mission is to retrieve space rocks…” _

 

Although, that’s a story for later.

 

The memory faded and he was back on that stupid astral plane.

  
  
  


“So, how was your trip down memory lane?” Hunk was, unlike the last two, was still standing up.

 

“It was...ironic.” Hunk giggled a little.

 

“Yeah, most memories of old Keith seem to be like that.” Hunk looked at what was in Adam’s pocket.

 

“Hm? Allura gave you a flower?” Adam looked at his pocket too. He picks the flower from there and observed it for a quick moment. It was some strange hybrid of what seemed to be a carnation and a lily, perfectly white and healthy, no rotting anywhere.

 

“That’s a mikera, their pretty common on Earth these days since most of the wildlife kinda died.” 

 

“So, what’s goin-” Hunk looked at his wrist and looked a little panicked.

 

“Well, I guess my time is up.” He faded and another new figure appeared.

 

Instead of walking in like the other three, this young lady tripped over herself. Her brown hair was tied up in a messy ponytail, a green t-shirt that was tucked into her jeans and a brown bomber jacket. 

 

“I really question how they are able to get out so easily.”   
  


 

* * *

 

Keith sat in his private space as he waited for his form to turn back to a dominant human. He looked at the mirror and tapped it. Accessing a look into the astral plane. He saw Lance, Hunk, and Allura sitting together in a circle, chatting.

 

He could only look in the mirror, feeling more guilt as he did. 

 

It was his fault his friends were stuck there.

 

_ No  _

 

It was Sendek’s.


	7. far beyond

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> oooooo, the story is so close but so far from being finished!

In.

 

Out.

 

In.

 

Out.

 

That’s what the paladins kept doing as they went in doors to empty rooms, and out when they found no success to find their time traveler. They had already found the room where their weapons were held, but no Adam.

 

“This place is so big! I feel like we’ve been going in circles!” complained Rowan.

 

“Ro, we just have to have faith that we'll find him in one of these rooms. Then we can contact the lions and get the heck out of here.” Adarien kept a close eye at the end of each hall they went through, using his natural sharpshooting skills to use. Jessa was trying to scale a map of the premises.

 

“A map is 85% loaded. I just need 30 more seconds.” Mira attempted to open up one of the doors with the laser of her bayard. 

 

“This hallway is just control rooms and security just like the others on this floor. If we keep going upwards then we can reach other rooms that can be similar.” Jessa’s arm popped up a large screen. It showed a full map of the ship based on the scan she had taken a couple of minutes ago.

 

“Okay, so we all agree to go up?” Jonah patiently waited for his team to agree. All did except one, Mira.

 

“We can’t. They have everything on a security lookout, it's only a matter of time until they find us and we’re back to square one.”

 

“Then do you have any other plans? We are the one armed, they aren't.” Mira grabbed something from her armor. It was a small whistle made out of a material that definitely didn’t look familiar.

 

“I do have this.” Adarien’s eyes widened.

 

“You-you brought it with you? And kept it in your armor?” Mira just rolled her eyes and threw it at him.

 

“Just call him and we can get out of here in a jiffy.” He lowered his rifle give a free hand to butterfinger catch it. He blew the whistle and...no sound came out.

 

“Wow a whistle that doesn’t work, great plan Mira.”

 

“Look. We can’t hear the sound, but he can.” Suddenly a couple sparks came out of nowhere and a figure half the size of Adarien showed up. The light figure turned into a wolf, a familiar one at that.

 

“Cosmo!” The wolf licked up Adarien's face as he ruffled the wolf’s fur.

 

“God, it’s been so long since I’ve seen you, buddy.” The other paladins were in amazement, except for Mira as she kinda knew.

 

“Wait, that whistle just summoned Cosmo!?”

 

“Yeah, I was sneaking around ‘Dare’s house before we left and realized he forgot the whistle, I’ve never really found the time to give it to his since, y’know,” She shrugged her shoulders.” -we’ve been escaping death.” 

 

“Thank you, Mira. Now that we have Kosmo, we can travel around a little faster.”Adarien gave the wolf one last ruffle on his head.

 

“Can Cosmo even travel all of us? I’ve only ever seen him travel one person at a time.” asked Rowan.

 

“He has traveled multiple people, but I’ve only seen his limit of two people. When Uncle Lance and my dad had to get out of a mission. It was funny, they were arguing the entire time until they noticed I was there.” 

 

“So it won’t hurt Cosmo?” Rowan ruffled Kosmo’s fur and had a smile she always had when she saw a cute animal.

 

“If he’s hurt he’ll just go into a dimension to heal up. So everyone, hold onto the wolf.” Everyone placed a hand on Cosmo.

 

“Cosmo, take us to Adam.” Jonah showed a bit of a frown.

 

“Will he know who Adam is?” Adarien nodded.

 

“He’s a space wolf that goes in and out of alternate universes and dimensions. He knows everyone.” The teams began to sparkle in quintessence and next thing they knew, they were in a laboratory cage. They turned around to find their time traveler unconscious in what looked like healing pod.

 

“Woah, what did he do to him?”

 

* * *

  
  


Adam quickly realized that maybe making an agreement with Katie Holt(or her undercover persona Pidge Gunderson) to not expose either of them for over researching the Garrison wasn’t the greatest thing he’s done in life. 

 

“Gosh, I have so many memories to choose from. Like that time you accidentally opened a commander’s secret sex tape, or when you found out Iverson’s first name. What to choose from…” She thought out loud, unlike the others, like she was choosing his meal from a restaurant.

 

“What is the purpose of me looking through all these memories?” 

 

“Well, we’re trying to inspire you to get us the hell out of the astral plane. The others and I have been stuck here for what is probably 5 years but feels like forever. We need to get out.” A smile popped on her face.

 

“I know what memory.” The light showed for one last time.   
  


* * *

  
  


It was game night at Adam’s house that night. Adam was making dinner since neither his boyfriend or the 13-year-old his boyfriend adopted could cook for shit. It was his responsibility as the one person in this house who can actually cook.

 

“I win.” Keith and Shiro were playing checkers - they played it until the food was ready then the three would play Uno - and Keith won each round. Leaving Shiro to question his intelligence.

 

“Keith, this is the 5th time you've won. At least let Takashi win one round so he doesn't degrade to late night phone calls even though I'm right next to him.” Keith quirked his eyebrow.

 

“That happened before?” Adam nodded as his moved the pot.

 

“Yep, it was the game night in our senior year when we were Garrison roommates. He got drunk for the first time and lost every round of fucking hopscotch.” Keith laughed hysterically.

 

“The man who was the youngest pilot on a mission as age 19 can't play hopscotch!” Shiro groaned and looked at Adam.

 

“I thought we promised not to ever mention that. Ever.” Adam shrugged.

 

“Not my fault that you jump like a fish in hopscotch.” Keith fell over onto the couch laughing even harder.

 

“Like a fish?” 

 

“Yeah, so let Shiro win a round.” Keith's laughter calmed down.

 

“Well I kinda did, ever round.” Shiro’s jaw opened.

 

“What?” Keith placed the piece back onto the board.

 

“I wanted this to be a fun game. So every couple of moves I would put you in a situation that you could have definitely gotten out of. I always give a chance within a plan like this that the opponent can win. Of course if it's James Griffin or Taylor, I don't ever give them a chance.” Adam placed the meal on the coffee table.

 

“Nice strategy. Now let's play Uno.”

 

* * *

  
  


Adam smile at the thought of that night of Takashi’s great hopscotch skills.

 

“You hear that? It's the sign of a clue!” Pidge was still there acting as playful as she was.

 

“Keith leaves a chance to be beaten when he wants to.” The world around him began to fade. Pidge’s smile grew from cheek to cheek.

 

“It’s happening!”

 

* * *

  
  


The paladins didn’t really know what the code to the pods were. They tried a bunch of words, the previous paladin’s names, Krolia, Cosmo, Texas, Blade of Marmora, so many words and none of them worked. 

 

“Adarien, can’t you think of anything else?” 

 

“No, those are all the most important thing my dad has ever talked about. Unless this is all just a-” They heard the doors open. They turned around and there standing was Keith.

 

“I knew you guys would be in this room.” Jonah and Mira held out their weapons.

 

“Stay back!” Keith kept a calm posture considering he had prisoners that just escaped right in front of him.

 

“Don’t worry, I’m not going to hurt you.” He walked forward and the black and blue paladins still held their guard but lowered their weapons. He placed his hand on the pod to enter the access code. In  _ morse code  _ of all things he spelled out “-/.-/-.--/.-../---/.-.”

 

“You have 15 minutes. Get out of here before I chase after you again and  _ really  _ throw you back onto Earth without the lions.” Rowan took Adam’s still unconscious body. She looked back up at Keith as the other paladins, except Adarien who stayed to lead Rowan, raced out the door.

 

“Than-”

 

“Don’t.” His voice turned stern and cold.

 

“Just go.” She left with sadness in her eyes and Adarien looked back at his father.

 

“I ordered you to go, then go.”

 

* * *

  
  


It took a little over two minutes to connect to the lions, which was quite inconvenient since they were already working on a time crunch and the paladins rushed out of the base immediately. Jessa was quite quick on getting calculations on where they were in the universe and BLue was well charged up for a new wormhole.

 

Adam woke up in the Red Lion while they were in the wormhole. He rubbed the back of his head, “Woah, what happened?” Adarien turned around to face him and help the man up.

 

“We were able to escape my dad’s ship.”

 

“Well, he kinda let us escape.” spoke Jessa from the Green Lion. Adam was confused.

 

“Wait, so the entire time I was unconscious, he just let you guys go?”

 

“Not quite.” Jonah’s voice joined the conversation.

 

“He let us out on one condition, we only had 15 minutes before he would chase us down again. I believe it’s a little too easy, which is why I’m so suspicious.”

 

“Well, at least we’re out of that mess and going back to Earth. I miss my mom.” Rowan began to daydream about her mom’s cooking as they existed the wormhole.

 

“Balmarean cooking is just so nice. It’s not the most aesthetically pleasing but it just has that nice homey feel to it that makes me miss it.” Adam didn’t really know what a ‘Balmarean’ was, but he assumed it was an alien race.

 

“Yeah, your parents make such good food! I love it when we come together for Christmas…”

 

The group began chit-chatting about their past. Nostalgic memories of childhood and holidays, they were still teenagers after all -with the exception of Mira who was 20 but she’s still young - they had the right to be normal teens. They each had vastly different personalities that blended well together, they were a good team.

 

‘ _ The future of the universe, huh?’  _ Adam thought to himself.

 

_ ‘If that's the future, I feel like we're going to be just fine.’ _

 

* * *

  
  


James Griffin wasn't one to be all sappy and all up in his emotions or some shit like that. But when your only hope in the universe is your son being in charge who you really miss, it's hard not to get a little sad every once in a while.

 

He took out a picture from his wallet. A couple photos of Jonah’s first day at the Garrison, some from his 14th birthday where Adarien grabbed a piece of cake and smashed it into Jonah’s face. James Griffin was an asshole sometimes, but remembering someone who he cared for made him a little less of an asshole.

 

He went out for lunch with the rest of the former MFE Fighters and Veronica. They just got lunch from the cafeteria and ate in the teacher’s lounge, despite Ina and Ryan being the only teachers in the group.

 

“So, any updates on the mission with team Voltron?” Nadia ate her salad and, thankfully, not while talking.

 

“No, we haven't heard from them in a week. I'm not sure what happened but I'm getting worried.” He worried for the safety of these paladins, they were still  _ children,  _ how else do you expect him and the rest of the team helping Voltron to react?

 

“I'm sure they're fine.” Veronica, always keeping belief in these kids. “They might’ve just went a little far out of communication reach. These kids are smart, I'm sure they know what they're doing.”

 

“Yeah, I know Ronnie. But I'm just worried that the kids would get hurt and all the blame from their parents would go to me. I'm the one I charge after all and have you seen Matt Holt and Shay when they're angry?” Veronica laughed as she remembered that one time Lance put red hair dye in Matt’s shampoo. 

 

“Out of all the calculation I've made, they only have a 2% chance of death.” James rolled his eyes.

 

“Thanks for the stats, Ina.” James said sarcastically. He played around with his lunch, before hearing the voice of someone who was not in this conversation before.

 

“Lieutenant Griffin, we have a transmission from the paladins. They’re heading towards Earth and they have someone with them.” James frowned, that’s not right. 

 

_ ‘Keith forced all the races onto Earth, who would be that far into space?’ _

 

“Take me.” The officer led him to the main mission room. Another officer, Officer Olivia, turned around from her chair.

 

“Lieutenant! The paladins have sent a message!”

 

“Show me the transmission.” She pulled up the video from her computer and James leaned over to watch.

 

_ “This is Jessa Holt of the Green Lion of Voltron. We are transmitting this to you to say that we will be arriving on Earth in about 4 days. We would also like to say that we are bringing along an unexpected guest, who is identified as Officer Adam Wheeler. _

 

_ We will send another message when we are to land on Earth.” _

 

The transmission ended and James was left in shock.

 

“Adam?” He faced the officer who brought him here.

 

“Officer Tim, find and bring Captain Shirogane to Conference Room 3. We need him to be informed.”

 

This was going to be an  _ interesting  _ story. It’s not every day you get to tell a guy that his presumed dead boyfriend was found in the middle of space and is being brought home by the paladins.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I will be answering any questions on my Tumblr about the story. If anything is confusing you, go ahead and ask at foololicious.
> 
> And btw, the morse code pod code Keith put in spells Taylor. :)
> 
> And the paladins have nicknames for each other since they all kinda grew up together.
> 
> Adarien - Dare  
> Rowan - Ro  
> Jessa - Jess  
> Jonah - none because he's a party pooper   
> Mira - her name is already short for Miranda


	8. hope is my only answer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry this is 1. So short and 2. took so long to come out.
> 
> Life has been quite hectic with events and homework that I've been lacking the inspiration lately, but I AM GOING TO FINISH THIS DO DON'T GET TOO WORRIED.
> 
> Enjoy!

_So your body is out of your control and the spirit of a dead guy you killed 20 years ago is taking over it to kill the kids?_

 

**I mean if that isn't the closest thing to an accurate summary, I don't know what is.**

 

_You're an idiot._

 

**I know.**

 

_And you just had to drag us into this?_

 

**I didn’t mean to. If I remember correctly, you’re the one who decided to get everyone involved.**

 

_And if I remember, you are the one who put a sword to my neck._

 

**Because you were the one to do the same!**

 

_Because I’m just a good guy_ _who wants to help his friends!_

 

**‘Friends’**

 

_I thought we agreed to never bring that up again._

 

**We did, I just like teasing you with it.**

 

_Heh, who knew the day Keith Kogane would joke about something._

 

**Shut up.**

 

* * *

  


“You called to see me, Lieutenant Griffin?” Captain Shirogane was as youthful as ever despite being in his 50s and in a wheelchair.

 

“Good day, Captain.-” James really wondered why Shiro let his rank go down from Admiral to Captain when he started teaching. He was most surprised that Shiro had given the title to Iverson “-We need to talk about the paladins.” Shiro rolled towards the empty space for him at the table across James. He neatly lined himself up and parked the wheelchair.

 

“Any new revelations on them?” James nodded.

 

“Yes, they will be arriving back on Earth in about 4 days-” Shiro’s face brightened up.

 

“That's great!”

 

“Captain, that isn't what I called you here for.” The tone of his words turned serious.

 

“Um, what is it? Are they injured? Dead?”

 

“No, of course not! They are fine even with the constant attacks from the Gane forces.”

 

“Then what is it?” James opened the file folder hesitantly. He lifted a photo but did not show it to Shiro.

 

“On their escape from the forces, they found life floating in space. It was identified as one of our officers.” Shiro gasped.

 

“Was it-” James didn't even need him to finish his sentence. He flipped the photo to where Shiro could see the face of his ex in his Garrison Uniform. A photo that was over 30 years old.

 

“They found Officer Adam Wheeler. The second transmission they sent after the first surprise shared that he had time traveled instead of dying during the war.” Tears were growing on Shiro’s face. Adam was alive.

 

“I knew you had to be the first person to know, I know that you two were close before Kerberos broke you two up. You won't be the first person to see him unfortunately due to Garrison rules, but you may see him after the initial interrogation.” Shiro looked eye to eye with James.

 

“Thank you, so much. Please, tell me if there are any more details on his status or the paladin’s status.” James smiled before nodding once.

 

“Of course, have a good day Captain Shirogane. You have a class to teach in a couple of minutes, I recommend you get there.” Shiro laughed wiping away the tears that had built up before moving the wheelchair.

 

“Yes, and how many times do I have to tell you to just called me Shiro, James.” He left to go to his next class. Leaving James alone with information.

 

“Many times, Shirogane.” James muttered to himself before leaving the room himself.

 

* * *

  


“¡Cierre su boca antes de que yo venga a su león y lo haga yo mismo!”

 

“¡Ah sí! ¡Inténteme!”

 

This was possibly everyone’s least favorite part of traveling. Mira would always be annoyed by Adarien’s bad boredom jokes he made when he was bored, hence why they are called bad boredom jokes. They would get into a verbal fight that would slowly transition to being entirely in Spanish, Mira coming from Latin America and Adarien spending so much time with Lance.

 

Jonah especially hated this part. He hated fighting in general, making him a horrible candidate black paladin but here he was.

 

“Can you two just shut up! Please, we’re arriving in a couple days you can get out of your lion then but for now, give everyone some peace!” A couple ticks of silence go by before Adarien speaks up.

 

“Mira, did we break Jonah?” Those three were on a huge ramble fight, leaving Adam, who had since moved from the Red Lion to the Green Lion, Rowan, being the sweetie pie she is, and Jessa, who was just with everyone’s shit, were flying in space in silence. Jessa turned off the transmission audio from the Red, Blue, and Black Lions.

 

“Ro, turn off transmission audio for placement one, two, and four. I know neither of us can handle this for another hour.” Rowan did just that and let out a big sigh.

 

“Thank goodness. If they went on for just a little longer I would've joined their fight.” Jessa giggle.

  


“That would be sooooo funny if you did. Just imagine, three screaming maniacs, then you.” Her giggle turned into a devilish laugh.

 

“What do you mean ‘and me’!?”

 

“Come on you two, don't be fighting like the other three.” Adam joined the conversation like the mom he is.

 

“Fine, it's just fun teasing and friend sometimes when you have no other source of entertainment.” Jessa slumped down in her chair and turned on the video chat option of her friends. She could still see Jonah, Mira, and Adarien arguing but they she thankfully put them on mute. Rowan was carefully preparing lunch and took and a couple of the extra pieces to snake on for herself.

 

“Sho, Adahm. Wha are yruo goinh to do when you see Shiro again?” asked Rowan as she finished off her snack. Adam had formed a small blush at the thought of seeing dear Shirogane once again. The blush was faint though and faded away as fast as it was formed.

 

“W-well, I'm not really sure.” He scratched the back of his head. Jessa turned around in her seat and plugged in some wires to the walls of the lion from what looked like a gaming console.

 

“Have you at least thought of what you're going to say?” Adam shook his head.

 

“No. Everything has just been happening so fast, I haven't had the time to just think about what I'll do when the time comes. I literally came from a time I thought I was never going to see him again, I didn't have to think about this event. Y’know, since I kinda escaped a horrible death.” Jessa shrugged in understanding.

 

“Reasonable.” Rowan was still not satisfied with how he answered. She was not going to let the same thing happen that happened to Uncle Keith and Uncle La- well that's another story for another time.

 

“Oo,oo, oo! I wanna help get you back together with Shiro!” Adam actually blushed this time.

 

“What makes you think I'm going to get back together with him?” Jessa rolled her eyes.

 

“Please, don't think Jonah is the only one who hasn't sneaked around the Garrison. All of us, excluding Mira who moved to the Arizona Base in high school, grew up at the Garrison. It was a matter of time before we _accidentally_ got our hands on some...confidential information.” Jessa had a mischievous look on her face.

 

“ _So much blackmail material._ ” Rowan shivered.

 

“Uh, you are way too much like Aunt Katie.”

 

“Well, duh, she's my favorite babysitter. She lets me stay up until 2 AM and I've been involved with many of her schemes, _that all had good intentions by the way,_ so I absorb her energy.”

 

“Is there any way you could've phrased weirder?”

 

“Anyways, we're getting off topic. Adam and Shiro, how did they get back together?”

 

“Well, he needs flowers. Then, he needs a smooth pick up line.” Adam rolled his eyes at the girl's idea.

 

“Have you to actually being in a relationship before or are you going off of some dating sim?” Both girls nodded at a second answer.

 

“Dating Sims are the true key to how relationships work. You may not doubt the power of a game, okay?” Adam looked at the ground then sighed, he looked back up.

 

“Fine, what are your ideas?”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Spanish was "Shut your mouth before I come to your lion and do it myself!"
> 
> Then, "Oh yeah! Try me!"
> 
> Correct me if I'm wrong on these, please. (I'm not a spanish speaker, I normally either speak english or vietnamese(not fluent in that either))


	9. way back when you knew my name

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Welcome to Earth, fam bams, and meeting up with yo ex.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oof, I actually updated after almost 3 weeks. I hate school and people who don't know they're hurting your feelings.

This whole situation Adam was going through was going so fast, he almost could keep up. First, he thought he was going to die and then it turns out he's just in the future, second, he had to process the fact that he time traveled 20 years in while also avoiding death again, third, he had to figure out what the hell Keith did to him while also running away from him, and now here he was, finally back to the one thing he knew best.

 

Earth.

 

Even then, Earth was now the one moving fast. The Garrison Arizona Base wasn't nominated for one of the fastest most efficient Garrison bases in the world for nothing. The Lions landed perfectly into little lion parking spaces on Garrison ground where Adam could remember was in front of the normal ship garage. Earth was more beautiful than it was when he ‘died’. Even in the middle of nowhere, the land stilled looked like it was thriving with wildlife, some Adam had never seen.

 

While the paladins were reuniting with their families, or in some cases requesting a video chat with them, Adam was being rushed to the examination station. The people escorting him were much kinder than those he worked with in his time.

 

“Officer Wheeler, I presume?” Adam turned around after watching Jonah reunite with the MFE Fighters, who all had significantly more mature looks.

 

“You presume correctly.” The young man, no younger than 30, signaled to him to follow.

 

“The Garrison is required to examine you and question for informational purposes. Your presence was extremely unexpected.” Adam nodded.

 

“I understand, regular protocol as always.” He followed the young officer, Officer Malik according to the name tag on his uniform, and he swore he had seen a puff of white hair similar to one he was more familiar with, but in black.

 

He never realized how quick this was all happening, it took him a while to realize that he had only had 5 minutes of total peace before going straight to protocol. And, yes. The protocol was the same as always, he had an in-depth examination(which was thankfully changed to not include surgery) and was given new clothes. It took him some time after putting on his Garrison Uniform that his clothes he had been wearing this entire time was in shambles and his eyes were now seeing everything slightly blurry, how the hell did his contacts fall out? He didn't know how the hell he survived so long in space with how back that damage was. Also thank goodness they forced a vision correction on his eyes.

 

Next up was the initial interview to get general information out of him. This initial interview was conducted by James Griffin. As he entered the room and sat down at his seat, James just sighed.

 

“Look, let's make this fast. I have an agreement with your ex-fiance to meet you after this interview and I have to get back to my son. Don't try and make this longer than it needs to be unlike some people I've interrogated.” 

 

“Uh, sure. I'll just go with the flow.” James just rolled his eyes and began asking questions.

 

They weren't ‘intense’ questions like how much he knew about whatever Keith was plotting, but they were just questions on his general presence of  _ being a dead guy alive _ . It didn't take long, perhaps about 10 minutes, and James was out of the room and Takashi Shirogane was in. James had for some reason moved his seat from the table to the corner, Adam didn't know why until he fully saw Takashi.

 

James stayed just to hold the door for Shiro as he rolled in the room and left right after. There was someone watching the room to make sure there was no funny stuff happening in the room, but it definitely wasn't James.

 

So there Adam was. After years of thinking his ex was dead, and same for Shiro, there he was in the flesh. Well, mostly flesh and some robot. The giant robot arm was not something you could ignore, no matter how hard you tried.

 

Adam took time to look at Takashi’s face clearly. He was just as handsome as he was all those years ago, a couple wrinkles from aging here and there but it was normal. The elephants in the room beside the robo-arm were:

 

  1. Shiro is in a wheelchair
  2. Shiro has a full head of white hair



 

It seems as if Shiro was doing the same physical examination of Adam as Adam was doing on him, leaving long moments of silence between the two. Shiro was the first person to say anything during those awkward 5 minutes.

 

“A-Adam. I thought you were dead.” Adam made a small smile.

 

“I could say the same for you.”

 

Yeah, maybe things moving too fast wasn't his strongest point. But hell, it was all worth it in the end if this hunk gone hunkier was his prize.

 

The two had a generally pleasant conversation. It was mostly simple catching up like what they did during the time the other was “dead”, interesting stories the other had about life and a sprinkle of gossip for the heck of it. It was a refreshing cup of tea compared to the intense experiences they had in space.

 

Shiro’s laugh was just as precious as ever. It hadn't changed with age and was what made him seem more youthful than he actually was. Maybe it was Galra experiments that would've played on with his youth, but no matter what, Takashi was just like how Adam remembered. Which brings on the thoughts of what happened before the Kerberos Mission.

 

Time had thankfully run out so that the topic didn't have to be answered, but it still lingered in the back of his head.

 

“Well, I guess that means our free talk is over.” Shiro smiled at Adam who smiled back 

 

“Well, I guess time flies by when you're having fun.” Shiro waved his goodbye.

 

“I'll see you after the examination is over.” Adam waved back.

 

“Yeah, see you later.”

 

It wasn't the most romantic reuniting, but in Adam’s heart, something was there that made him feel everything was okay. He loved that man so much.

 

* * *

  
  


After Shiro left to go meet Adam, Adarien didn't have anyone to meet up with whom he was close to. Shiro was the only thing closest to family he had left. He said his hellos to the other paladins’ parents.

 

Jessa had her mom, dad, step-mom, and step-dad. As well as her little half-brother.

 

Rowan had Shay and many other Balmerans.

 

Mira was from overseas but was getting her video chat with her family.

 

Jonah had his dad and the MFE Fighters.

 

After everyone left, Adarien was left alone. No one else was there to welcome him home, he had never felt so alone.

 

He felt tears form on his face and quickly went inside, but he didn't know where else to go. He just decided to wander around the Garrison, then blew his whistle so he could have Kosmo with him. When Kosmo showed up it was like there was someone to welcome him home, the wolf licked his face after being summoned causing Adarien to laugh a little.

 

“Hey buddy, how are ya’?” 

 

The two Wales through Garrison hallways not knowing where they were going. Adarien looked through each hallway in hope that something would be there for him. He realized that it was class time and a class would be starting right now and quickly moved to a different quarter so he wouldn't get in trouble for wandering school halls.

 

He found himself in the medical quarters. There held patients, although it was nothing intense. Cancer was eliminated many, many years ago, as well as many other diseases after the cultural diffusion of the aliens to earthlings. So the only patients really there was those what got injured in testing draft ships, school fights, and the general flu.

 

He didn't pay attention until he recognized a room within that hall. It was room number 802.

 

He entered the room and it was just as quiet as he remembers, he was gone for no longer than a year after all. He looked at each of the sleeping persons in the pods, each were close to him.

 

He walked towards Lance's pod, lightly tapping the pod’s shield to show Lance's status.

 

Stable. Unresponsive.

 

Adarien sat down in a seat as Kosmo sniffed at the pods to his heart's content. He felt more tears brewing in his eyes.

 

He just wanted his family again.

 

He stood up and looked at the window. It was a sunny day in May, Adarien should probably get re-enrolled so he could that validation for being educated by the Garrison. After all, dropping out of high school at 16 going onto 17 at a pretty prestigious military school wasn’t the greatest thing to tell someone(*cough*Keith*cough*). 

 

He never noticed he was there for so long until he looked at the clock. He was almost late for the meeting with other Garrison Representatives. Sitting up to leave and almost at the door, Adarien heard a voice from one of the pods.

 

“ _ Pod Release. _ ” He quickly turned around to see the pod release Lance. His face full of shock did not wait to tell. He ran to catch Lance from faceplanting the ground and ran outside. Lance groaned from being dragged.

 

“Doctors! The paladins are waking!”

 

* * *

  
  


“Uhhhh! ‘Dare is late again!” Jessa leaned on her dad’s shoulder.

 

“Jess, I’m sure he’ll be here soon.” The other paladins, as well as their parents, were waiting outside the conference room, waiting for both Adarien and other Garrison representatives. The only ones that were there were James, Ina, and Veronica, since they and Ryan and Nadia were with Jonah. 

 

“What do we expect him anyways? He’s always late!” Jonah felt a hit on the back of his head from Veronica.

 

“Look, kid, I know I'm no angel when it comes to this, but be nice to your friends behind their backs.” Adam and Shiro, with a couple of Garrison officers, had appeared from around the corner. The two men were having a nice conversation, then Shiro said something and their conversation went dead. 

 

“Ro’, told ya’ Shirogane’s a mess.” Jessa whispered to her friend. James cleared his throat and greeted the group.

 

“Shall we conduct the meeting?” Everyone nodded and entered the room. 

 

Suddenly a running sound from across the hallway was heard by  _ everyone _ . The new paladins sighed.

 

“There he is.” Adarien stopped to take a breath.

 

“Young Kogane, what is your excuse for being late?” asked James. 

 

“I apologize, but something very important just happened before I was leaving to come here-”

 

“What could be so important that you didn’t come?”

 

“Lieutenant Griffin, the old paladins have awakened. So I don’t know about you, but that seems pretty important!”

 

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Next chapter is going to be a long one from what I'm planning and I promise I'll update more often next month since I want to get this over with before season 8 comes out.
> 
> Thank you for reading!


	10. for all i've done, for all i've lost

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Yes, the name of this did change, but it's because I wasn't a big fan of it and didn't know how I could connect others of a similar story to this. So, officially, "one moment" is now "in which adam accidentally time travels"
> 
> The story is coming close to its true ending and season 8 is rapidly approaching, so let's get on with it!

“Have I ever told you kids how much I hate my job sometimes?” James took a sip from his mug of coffee and placed it back down. 

 

After Adarien broke the news, all parents and associate Garrison officers left to figure out the situation, unfortunately, that left James, Veronica, Adam, and the paladins to continue the meeting. The young paladins and Veronica attempted to protest, to get a chance to see their loved ones awake after years of comatose, but to no avail. So they were left here, at the worst time to have a meeting.

 

“Dad, I think you’ve complained enough about your job, after the last couple of years we’re alive, that we know by now.” Jonah stayed calm, but the same could not be said for the others. They were anxious to get this over with and run to the medical quarters. Veronica was especially angry as she really wanted to slap her brother in the face and many other areas.

 

“Fine, but right now there is so much paperwork I have to do after both this meeting and the questioning of the old paladins. I’m not getting as much sleep as my doctor wants me to at this age-” Jessa slammed her hand on the table.

 

“Sir, I would love to hear you complain about you old people problem, but another time. Can we just get this over with?” James sighed, he really can’t joke around with these kids.

 

“Fine.” He looked over at Veronica, who was also just as angry with him as the paladins. ”Veronica, explain the situation on Earth.” She tapped her tablet and a power point appeared on the screen. Pictures of small towns of what was once the flourishing Los Angeles appeared first. The people, both humans, and aliens of all species were being evacuated with a heavy black smog in the background. Many other locations showed the same scenario but in different places. New York, Stockholm, Saigon, Jerusalem, so many of that same problem.

 

“A mysterious black smog has been appearing in several cities in the past couple of week, it has been shown to be deadly. We’ve tried to evacuate all civilians, but unfortunately, some weren’t able to make it out.”

 

“We can’t identify what is inside the smoke, but many of our scientists believe it's some sort of foreign gas. Foreign to Earth. We have to find a solution before everyone on Earth is being chased by this smog, we believe it to be related to the Gane.” She closed the powerpoint and looked at Jonah. Signaling that it was his turn to explain the events that occurred in space, explain that Keith was the leader of the Gane Forces.

 

“While in space, once we were several lightyears away from Earth, the Voltron paladins were constantly trying to escape their grasp. Once we had found our time traveler-” He pointed to Adam who did an awkward ‘Yup, that's me’ gesture.”-we were slowed down and captured.” The two Garrison adults gasped.

 

“How could you be so stupid?”

 

“And how did you get away?” 

 

“Okay, you two, slow down. Let me explain.” He cleared his throat.

 

“We were capture but let go. The leader of the Gane Forces is confirmed to be former Red Black Paladin, Keith Kogane.” Veronica and James looked at Adarien for a reaction, he just crossed his arms and faced downwards. Almost in disappointment for something 

 

“Something was obviously not right with the situation. We were separated from Officer Wheeler, he was in some experiment chambers while we were stuck in cells. Kogane had said he was only after our lions, but somehow he let us go  _ with  _ the lions.” James murmured something under his breath, it was inaudible to anyone in the room. Jonah looked at Adam, for him to speak about what happened.

 

“Officer Wheeler, forgive if this makes you uncomfortable, what happened in this chambers?” Adam looked in astonishment as he realized no bay had asked that, nor did he properly explain what happened. He stood up as he spoke.

 

“Well, as Jonah said, I was separated from the others into a room. I was strapped down to a table, similar to how Captain Shirogane was when he first crashed to Earth - would love to thank whoever changed that rule and to slap Iverson for doing that to Takashi - and put under a gas, aggressively.” James chuckled lightly.

 

“Yep, that is defiantly Keith.” Adam nodded in agreement.

 

“Yes, it sure is. After being put under the gas, I was sent to a place called the astral plane.” Adarien slammed the table, angrily.

 

“That's impossible! The astral place takes mind  _ and  _ body. There's no way you could've made it that just spiritually.”

 

“Look! I'm not saying I know everything, this just happen and that's just how I try to understand it. To be honest, I don't understand anything, I was ‘dead’ before the war’s turning point okay!”

 

“Gentlemen!” The sudden abrupt of James’ voice and him slamming the table startled the two to silence. Rowan sat in her seat, slowly wondering what a mess she got into, she didn't deserve this.  _ She didn't do anything to deserve this. _

 

James cleared his throat.

 

“We are in times of danger, predictably more danger than a war, for the lives of billions are at stake. The population density of countries is getting tighter and tighter every day, we don't fight in in times like this. Understand?” Everyone in the room nodded. Veronica looked down at her tablet to see what else was to be talked at during this meeting.

 

“Next up, since that topic got you guys riled up, we have the technical status of the lions and your weapons.” It was now Jessa and Rowan’s turn to speak. The two girls stood and spoke.

 

“The lions are completely fine in a fighting scene…”

 

To say that this part was boring had to be an understatement. The James, Adarien, and Jonah were all more pilots than technicians. Adam had other things in his mind.

 

As wonderful as it was to be on Earth, he didn't feel like he belonged here, both metaphorically and literally. This time period didn't sound the most pleasant either, which made him wonder what could've changed. He came to the sudden realization that one thing is what caused so much to happen.

 

It was him.

 

* * *

  
  


To say that Lance was exhausted was an understatement. He wished he had at least a week to sleep to regain his usual energy, but noooo, he had to do work or some shit like that. One by one, the others awoke. They were all exhausted despite being asleep for 5 years.

 

“Lance, can you please get that face off your face. That’s your ‘I hate my job face.’ and personally, no offense buddy, I would like to keep that face on James Griffin rather than you.” 

 

The paladins were moved into actual hospital beds, as per Shiro’s request, and Lance was paired with Hunk and Pidge with Allura. Shay and her family were also in the room with him and Lance’s family was being notified of his waking.

 

“I know Hunk, but let me sulk before going back into an energized state. James just sulks in a casual way, meaning every day.” Shay giggled a little and held Hunk’s hand.

 

“I miss you so much.” Lance glanced at the motion and smiled a little before looking back at the ceiling if the world won’t so cruel sometimes he could have that situation.

 

“Come on man, don’t look so sad. We’re alive and awake, also not in an astral plane so that’s great.” A knock came from the door and a woman with blond hair in a long braid peaked her head through the door.

 

“Romelle!”

 

“It’s my thought twin!” She laughed her way in a closed the door. She gave a warm hug to everyone in the room.

 

“I heard you both had awakened so I just hade to see after I was done teaching. I already saw the girls and I’m so glad you are all doing well!” Lance shrugged his shoulders.

 

“A little coma can’t kill us, we’ve been through quite a bit to drop dead now.”

 

“Just as much as a goofball as I remember.”

 

They all talked for about an hour before a couple more entered the room. The first to enter was Veronica, followed by Rowan, Adarien, Shiro, and Adam. Lance knew the second he saw his sister, that clipboard she was holding would be used more than just a hard surface to write on. Especially with that face she had on.

 

“Lance Nataniel McClain.” He awkwardly smiled as he heard his sister call his name.

 

“Hi, Ronnie.” She threw herself on her brother in a loving embrace.

 

“You are one hell of an idiot if you think mom is going to go easy on you this time.” ance laughed a little as he hugged his sister back. He felt another body on him. As he looked to his right and saw Adarien clutching onto him. 

 

“Hi, Uncle Lance!” The young boy smiled brightly, reminding Lance of everything he lost many years back. Pushing away those dark regrets, he smiled at the boy.

 

“Hey, ‘Dare! Heard you became my replacement.” Adarien smiled and flexed the not-so-there muscles. Rowan verbally cringed from the other side of the room.

 

“Yeah, I think I’m doing pretty good.”

 

“You were angry half the time!”   
  


“Shut up, Ro! Let me sound cool for once!” The whole room burst in laughter and Adam pushed Shiro’s wheelchair to be closer to the ex-paladins.

 

“It’s good to see you both awake. I really missed your presence, despite it was  _ a lot  _ of fighting in recent years.” He looked shadily at Lance. He rose his arms in defense.

 

“I was doing the right thing to bring back a friend to his normal sanity! How was I to know that being a shell for a dead enemy would completely change how one fights?” Lance looked right at Adam.

 

“Speaking of complete change, welcome back Adam.” Adam had finally recognized the first guy from when he was in the astral plane. One of his former student, Lance McClain. Straight-B student.

 

“You still recognized me?” Hunk was the one to explain.

 

“Well, time runs differently in the astral plane and your look literally haven’t changed in 20 years. Since you know,  _ that  _ whole situation.” Adam remembered that it was the paladins who knew who he was, why he existed. He needed to ask.

 

“How did you know any of this? How did you know I was alive?” Shiro stopped Adam at his question for a bit to clear up a couple things being thrown around the room.

 

“Woah, woah, woah. You were in the astral plane-” He pointed to Adam.”-You two, Allura, and Pidge knew my ex-fiance was alive despite being asleep for, what, 5 years.” He pointed at Lance and Hunk, who figured they just trapped themselves into Shiro’s ultimate dad mode.

 

“Well, in our defense Shiro, we too were in the astral plane because that kid you adopted decided ‘That's a good idea!’. The story could get more complicated, but I don't think your old man brain could handle it.” Shiro rolled his eyes and a couple laughs were shared by that last comment.

 

“Lance, respect your elders and I'm only 50. Last time I checked, you're going in on your 40s.” Lance shrugged his shoulders.

 

“At least I'm not the one who started getting grey hairs at 7.” Adam was the first one to laugh, as it reminded him of when he used to mess around with Shiro’s infamous birthday.

 

“You've got to be honest here, Takashi. He got you there.” He pats his ex’s shoulder and Shiro placed his hand on Adam’s.

 

“Oh shut up, I'm not 7. I'm a proud 12 years old now.”

 

The room was filled with laughter, successfully dodging questions that both Hunk and Lance didn't want to answer. Lance was the one who especially didn't want to answer anything, occasionally he would look at the window as if he was waiting for something to happen. Hunk would be too distracted by his own family, his family, Shay’s, and their daughter, to notice the glances. Shiro and Adam were reconnecting the sparks in their relationship. Veronica was getting the rest of their family from the lobby. 

 

Adarien noticed though. Despite the levels energy of happiness in the room that could blind a bad day any day, he would notice his Uncle Lance giving stressed glances at the window.

 

“Uncle Lance?” Lance notice the teen while in the middle of his glance.

 

“What is it kiddo?” 

 

“Is everything alright? You keep on staring at the window super sad, you don't really look that way unless you get in a fight with dad or Aunt Pidge.” Lance felt a little hesitant to answer.

 

“I-I’m fine ‘Dare. Just a little tired.” Adarien knew it wasn't the full truth, a lot of the answers to questions that had to do with Adarien’s father never felt fulfilled.

 

“Okay. But I'm pretty sure you just took the longest nap of your life.” Lance chuckled and messed with Adarien’s black-brown hair.

 

“Yeah, I guess I'm just making up for lost time, but I lost a little more time than that wake up gave me. Being a paladin really drains you out, ya’know?” Adarien smiled softly.

 

“Yeah, I think I’m learning that the hard way.”


	11. it's me who is the matter

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Plot + Adashi, that's all you guys came here for, right?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Consistent posting because I'm in a race to finish this before S8 come out? I don't know her.

“Commander, are you sure you want to land on Earth? Now?” The Galra soldier was hesitant to follow his emperor’s orders.

 

“Yes, we will be landing on planet Earth in 45 doboshes. I am very firm on my decision.” Keith stood tall on the platform. Making sure all his soldiers followed his orders correctly. 

 

But somehow, he both was and wasn't Keith. The purple in his skin tinted his lighter Korean skin, making him look a little dead. The voices in his head, however, had somehow gone away. The voices of Sendek, those he had killed in the past, even Lotor somehow made it into his mind, they slowly went away. Keith was thinking like Keith, finally.

 

This road to Earth was an important one. It was time to put his plan in action, hopefully, Shiro won't be too mad when he finds out the plan.

 

The plan that will change the world, but needs one last action.

 

The plan? To reset the timelines.

 

How? Playing god a little too hard.

 

“Sir?” The train of his own thoughts popped out of his mind and came back to reality. He turned to the woman, one he used to call a friend before she too was taken over by the voices, who's headpiece got loose and looser by the day.

 

“Yes, Acxa?” She pointed to the opening where he could see everything on the outside.

 

“We are almost on Earth. Do we attack now or move attacks on land?” He shook his head.

 

“No! We are not attacking Earth! I will simply talk to them.” Acxa looked at him confused, the state she was in had never seen him so civil to humans.

 

“Talk? Commander, are you okay?” His breathing started becoming heavy, he knew what was happening. 

 

“Yes, I’m fine. I just need to talk to the humans. I need to get there as soon as possible.” She left to go back to her station, leaving Keith on the platform, still breathing slowly.

 

_ You can’t control destiny. _

 

“Yes. I. Can.” he whispered to himself. Quietly enough for no one to hear him but loudly enough for the voices to hear him.

 

_ Every realm, you are left miserable in the end. What makes you think you can give yourself a happy ending? Ever realm, you lose all the happiness for evil, what makes you think you can change your  _ **_destiny_ ** _? _

 

The pain in his head started pounding, but he kept his composure. His breathing was still heavy, almost like breathing underwater. He could feel the purple in his skin growing on his arms. Using his strength, he fought it back.

 

“This is my life. I get to choose how I wanted it to end.”

* * *

  
  


Queen Allura was exhausted, to say the least. When Coran had arrived from New Altea, she was filled with joy to see the old man. Coran definitely aged, but for a man who was thousands of years old, he was looking as young as ever.

 

“Oh, Allura! You’re doing well!” Coran had nearly cried when he and Romelle entered the room. Almost losing the daughter of your dead best friend, who you treated like family, was not a good thing. He was just glad to see those shining eyes again.

 

“Coran! It’s so good to see you well. You too Romelle.” Thankfully, Pidge was a deep sleeper. She wouldn’t be listening in on the loud noises.

 

“Allura, how are you?” Coran let go of his tight hold on the queen.

 

“I feel fine, just a little tired. It’s almost like I was awakening from my 10 thousand year slumber all over again.” The three chatted up for a while, catching up on what had been happening, but not too political. Romelle’s small laughs and Coran’s light-hearted jokes were what cheered up Allura’s tired spirits.

 

“I should go visit the guys. I'll come back once I've heard that Pidge has awoken from her extra nap.” Allura giggled as she looked back at Pidge who was fast asleep and snoring.

 

“You'll be alerted. Tell them hi for me!” Romelle got up and waved a happy goodbye.

 

“I will!” She left the room to go to the next, leaving Allura there with Coran.

 

“Allura.” Coran looked at her both seriously and worried.

 

“I know that you won't remember all the answers fully, but what happened while you were asleep?” Allura sighed. It was right that she didn't know all the details to the lead-up, but she did figure out most of them through the source of the problem.

 

“I was not completely sure on what was fully going on, there were small details on the situation that are important for me to really understand what happened that I'm still not sure about. Although, I think I can make a good guess on what was going on. It's just-” She held her tongue. Allura was not one to tattle tale on other people's personal problems, but when it was her close friends it was always in her to try to help. Coran placed his hand on her’s for assurance.

 

“Princess, I can't help you comprehend what happened if you don't tell me. If it's about the other paladins, you can tell me. I've dealt with all of you for years now, we've all been through so much together. Nothing is a problem that it too big.” Allura sniffed, she looked at Coran with teary eyes.

 

“That's what I thought before we got into this whole mess. And look where it got us.” Coran gripped on her hand.

 

“It's okay Princess. All that matters now is that all 4 of you-” He was so tempted to say 5.”-are okay. You all are in good condition. I just want to know  _ what happened _ .” She wiped her tears away and looked out the window.

 

“I didn't know it then, but it had all started with Lance and Keith’s constant fights. It was getting so bad that even Adarien had to stay at Shiro’s for a while, do you remember that?” Coran, sadly, nodded his head.

 

“Of course. I could never forget the look of Young Adarien’s face when Keith told him to stay at Shiro’s while I was on my visit to Earth.”

* * *

  
  


_ “Dad, where are we going? It's almost dinner.” Adarien was in the back of the car, holding onto his backpack that Keith had told him to pack up with clothes and his games. Next to him was a blanket that Krolia had given him for his 8th birthday Adarien had never let go of since. _

 

_ “Um, you're staying at Uncle Shiro’s for the night. I've got a situation tonight, so you're having a sleepover with Uncle Shiro.” Adarien’s face glimmered. He loved having sleepovers with Uncle Shiro, staying up all night hearing stories about his dad from the past. It was funny to bring them back up during dinner and see his father's reaction. _

 

_ “Yay!” It was another 5 minutes before arriving at Shiro’s home. A little big for a single man, but big enough for a single man turned babysitter. Keith knocked on the door, holding Adarien’s blanket. He could hear the squeaky wheels grow louder, then stop. Before the door was opened to reveal Shiro’s surprised face. _

 

_ “Keith? Adarien? What are you doing out here so late.”  _

 

_ “Well, there a situation and I needed a place for Adarien to spend the night, so can he spend the night at yours?” Shiro rolled back for room for them to come in. _

 

_ “Of course, you need me to take him to school too?” Keith smiled and nodded. _

 

_ “Yeah, I predict it'll be an all-night situation.” Shiro rolled his eyes and Adarien found himself a comfy place in the kitchen. _

 

_ “Hey ‘Dare! You know it's rude to look through people’s fridges without asking?” The sound of a fridge closing and Adarien’s slow walk out of the kitchen with a big smile was a signal of humor this night was going to be. _

 

_ “Uncle Shiro, may I have a meal from your fridge?” Shiro nodded. _

 

_ “Sure, just don't pick the sweets or the ones that looked like I cooked them.” He looked back at Keith, about to praise him on his parenting, before hearing a comeback from Adarien. _

 

_ “Like I would want to eat food you cooked. It always ends up tasting like garbage.” _

* * *

  
  


“Yes, Adarien visits to Shiro’s started out as just one night, but they turned into monthly, then weekly, then it just seemed like Adarien was just living at Shiro’s. It's because of that ‘situation’ Keith always used as an excuse.” 

 

* * *

 

_ “Keith, this is the third time this week you've asked Adarien to stay over. What's going on?” Adarien had already gone upstairs to take a shower. Shiro forced Keith to sit down and talk to him, he was getting and little suspicious. _

 

_ “Shiro, everything is fine. It's just a situation that will be figured out soo-”  _

 

_ “Keith, I don't mean to rudely interrupt, but you've been using that excuse for the last month. Be specific, what is the situation?” Keith stayed silent. Just like how he didn't know how someone would understand. _

 

_ “You wouldn't understand.”  _

 

_ “Look at me eye to eye.” Keith looked up to Shiro, whose face turned very stern. _

 

_ “I am your superior officer. I consider you a brother and I'm for sure you consider the same, I have taught you lessons that have put building blocks into the man you are today, the parent you are today. I will understand.” Keith stayed quiet for a couple of seconds before answering him. _

 

_ “You remember I was the one who had killed Sendek.” Shiro rolled his eyes. _

 

_ “If this is your opportunity of telling me you save my life, I want an explanation, not a brag.” Keith shook his head. _

 

_ “It’s not a brag, I’m explaining.” Shiro frowned, showing his confusion and became more intrigued. _

 

_ “For the past couple of months, at night, I seem to blank out and the next morning I end up in a place I have no idea how I ended up there. Every time this happens my head is filled with the voice of Sendek telling me things about my fate and some shit like that. Every night I’ve been sending ‘Dare to you, Lance, Pidge, and Hunk have been finding out what’s been happening.” He paused for a minute. _

 

_ “Keith, what’s going on?” He looked up. _

 

_ “Shiro, Sendek has been trying to take over my body to restore the Galra Empire. I don’t know how to stop it.” _

* * *

  
  


Coran sat still, looking horror of the new information given to him. A young man that had so much potential for good is forced to do bad against his will. Keith was a talented pilot, leader, and fighter, his skills did not need to be use in such a way.

 

“Allura. Please tell me that-”

 

“Keith was never able to get a hold of his own self. That was the night when Lance gave me an emergency call, it was the night the lions mysteriously reappeared. I got from New Altea to Earth faster than I got into that lion. Keith had gotten into space, Lance had the splendid idea to chase after him.”

  
  


“And then you all had a fight. Resulting and you four coming home in comas and Keith disappearing into the oblivion of space.” She nodded her head sadly.

 

“During that fight Keith and Lance, the motivation was certainly there as Lance yelled ‘I'm going to go kick his ass into some sense.’, had their own individual fight while me, Pidge, and Hunk fought off the alarming amount of Galra soldiers that worked for Keith. I don't know what happened in that fight, but it ended in all of us passing out in the real world and waking up on the Astral plane.”

 

* * *

  
  


“Takashi, are you really sure we should be here? Don't you have a class to teach?” Adam said, but still going along with Shiro’s idea and rolling his wheelchair into the Memorial room.

 

“Yes, I  _did_ have a class. But today I canceled it so I can spend time with you and so that my class’ projects don't look like crap. I swear these kids wait till the last second to finish them.” Adam rolled his eyes.

 

“You say that as if that wasn't you. You're the one who always did you project the night before.”

 

“And I still got an A.” Shiro smiled brightly at the fact he could finally flaunt off his grade school grades in some way. He looked up ahead to give direction on where they were going.

 

“Oh! Right here, this is the wall.” Adam turned the chair right and looked above him. Thousands of names of lost Garrison members, some he recognized and some he didn't. There was one name that he surely did recognize.

 

“Oh.” It was his own. 

 

_ Adam W. _

 

“Man, I really need to retake my ID photo.” 

 

“No, you don't. I think you look pretty good in that one.”

 

“You're being biased Takashi.” Shiro laughed and Adam joined along. The sounds of both their laughter were soothing to the other. A feeling of safety that hadn't been felt in years.

 

“So, did you come here to show me my memorial or what?” Shiro rolled his own chair to get the bouquet of flowers that seemed quite fresh.

 

“Yes, and these too.” He gave the bouquet to Adam, who was looking a little pink have just seen that smooth giving of flowers.

 

“Th-there beautiful.” Shiro smiled.

 

“Earth has had some of the best florists come from different planets. They are all quite talented but I like getting help from just a couple of good ones.” Adam smiled.

 

“Thank you.” It was a soothing moment. Just being around each other. Shiro reached out to hold Adam’s hand.

 

“I missed you, like a lot.” Adam tightened the grip of Shiro’s hand.

 

“I did too, Takashi.”


	12. the end is the beginning

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> we end our story with an ending. is it good? that's for you to tell.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I tried to get this out before season 8 dropped, but as you can see...that didn't work out. Finals week was right after season 8, so a bunch of stress there. Then I got a huge writer's block because season 8 completely changed how my ending worked out. So here we are, I have an ending I can build off of for my "fix-it fic"(more on that at the end note) and I hope you enjoy my ending more than season 8's.
> 
> (but seriously, Lance being a farmer and Shiro getting married completely changed how this timeline worked)

Peace was never forever in this reality. As soon as Adam and Shiro came back from the memorial, there was news of a Galra like ship about to land on Earth in 5 minutes. Everyone already knew who it was.

 

“I'm fucking done with this week. I swear I'm going to snap any second now.” Veronica hit the back of James’ head with her clipboard.

 

“Ow!”

 

“Oh, shut up. You've said that hundreds of time, James. You only snapped once.” James rubbed the back of his head and looked back at the window where everyone else was looking before hearing the outdoor gates open up.

 

“What do you think he’s here for?” 

 

“I don't know, maybe ask your brother.” Veronica rose an eyebrow.

 

“Why the would I ask my brother why a Galra shi- Oh wait now I understand.” She nodded her head and walked up to Lance and the rest of their family. Lance was still taking to Sylvio who had recently graduated from college to become a doctor. Lance was feeling a little guilty for missing his nephew’s graduation.

 

“Tío Lance, it's alright. I can just show you the pictures and it'll be just as good.” Lance sighed.

 

“Not as good as hearing ‘Sylvio McClain’ in big speakers that weren't because you got in trouble.” Veronica coughed to get Lance’s attention.

 

“Lance, love that you’re catching up on big life moments, but do you have any explanation for the GIANT GALRA STYLE SHIP IN THE SKY ABOUT TO LAND IN 1 MINUTE!” Lance jolted at Veronica’s sudden volume raise. 

 

“Ronnie, you don't have to be so loud!” he yelled back, contradicting what he had just said. 

 

“Never mind, I get it now!” He yelled after realizing what he was doing. They looked outside to where the loud noise was and saw the ship landing.

 

“You have an explanation for any of this.” Lance shrugged.

 

“Well, kinda.” 

 

“Kinda?” He scratched the back of his head.

 

“Look, my head is kinda spinning with how fast everything is going right now.”

 

The door of the ship opened and Garrison soldiers approached cautiously. From the smoke that came from the ship, a tall figure approached. It was pretty obvious who it was, considering his face didn’t really change that much.

 

“Officer Kogane, re-reporting to Earth from the depths of space, I am here to give a request for mission #000874.” Iverson stepped up and lowered his weapon.

 

“Officer Kogane, how many times do we have to remind you that your dramatic entrances seem like an enemy invasion? Your mission number expired when you left for Earth without the permission on any of your superior officers, any request will be rejected until questions for intentions.” No one else was on Keith’s ship, suspiciously, while it was being inspected. Keith voluntarily gave himself to the Garrison and was handcuffed and lead through the small crowd to a private room. 

 

While passing by, many different faces were shown among the crowd. Families had confused faces, the old paladins, except Lance, all sighed and looked disappointed, the new paladins bite their lips as Keith passed by the crowd. Adarien looked worried.

 

Lance, well he looked a good mixture of everything. Meaning he had his ‘this fucking idiot’ faces.

 

“Lance, you have your ‘that fucking idiot’ face.”

 

“Because he deservingly gets it.”

 

Shiro looked at Keith walk pass him and glance at the older man. Keith quickly looked away in shame, before losing all emotion in his face.

 

“Takashi…”

 

“It’s alright. It’s just Keith. He knows what he’s doing.”

 

* * *

  
  


Keith, in fact, did know what he was doing for once. 

 

“Cadet--Officer. Do you understand how much legal trouble you are in?” Iverson tried his best to stay calm.

 

“Yes, sir. I fully understand. Although, one of it will matter after I tell you something.” Iverson rolled his eyes.

 

“Shoot it.”

 

“You know all the strange things that have been happening to Earth?” Iverson became intriguing.

 

“Not everything, that's Officer Veronica McClain’s job, but I do know about the smog in different cities around the world.” Keith nodded his head.

 

“Iverson, I don't believe you'll understand me if I say this-”

 

“Kogane, say whatever. This whole planet has been through many crazy things that we thought were impossible 25 years ago. I won't be entirely surprised.” Keith took in a deep breath.

 

“I messed up this reality.” Iverson looked confused.

 

“This reality?” Keith nodded.

 

“Yes, this reality. Slav was right about there being different realities where anything could happen. I, just, kinda played around with that idea too much and messed up time.” 

 

“Explain.”

 

“I am the reason Officer Adam Wheeler was found alive in space. I played around with reality and somehow found the possibility to pluck him out of his fate, I opened a time travel portal, but it was from the wrong reality.” Iverson was still a slight bit confused but kept listening.

 

“On Earth. The absent presence of his dead body, because this is a reality where Adam should've been dead, caused Earth to begin a reset.”

 

“But that's good, right?” Keith furiously shook his head.

 

“Absolutely not! A reset in the world means that everything goes back to the way it already was. A world without change, an everlasting cycle of things going wrong!”

 

“So let me get this straight. You messed up by bringing back a dead man, that affected the planet from where his true fate was, and now what?” Keith scratched the back of his head.

 

“Well, that wasn't my only problem.” Iverson frowned.

 

“Then what was it?”

 

“I plucked Adam from the wrong reality. Not only was it time travel, but I ripped a small hole in reality. So our reality has two Adam Wheelers that exists, of course, ours is dead, but I in another I brought him here.” 

 

“Do you know how bad this situation just got? It went from time destruction to universe destruction!” Keith tried playing innocent.

 

“Look! I didn't mean to do it, it was the spirit of an evil dead guy that tried to influence me to do it!” Iverson facepalmed and Keith was sure he could hear another from the one-sided window.

 

“Whatever, Kogane. How do you intend to fix this? That  _ is  _ the reason you came back on Earth, right?”

 

Keith was a little nervous for that one. He hadn't gotten everything right for himself, but he knew he had people on Earth that could figure it out in a matter of hours. It was a crazy idea, but Keith knew what he was doing.

 

“While I was playing around with pieces of reality, I learned that the reality Adam is from knew how to travel someone between realities. They were able to travel Robots between realities, the paladins, so I know we have the possible technology if we work together.” Keith looked eye level with Iverson.

 

“We are capable with so much, it's just that our reality didn't quite work the war in that way.” Iverson took notes on the notepad he had.

 

“Who will you recruit in your attempt to bring a man back to both a different time period and a different reality?” 

 

“Colleen, Sam, Pidge, Matt, and Jessa Holt. Hunk and Rowan Garrett.” Iverson kept taking note.

 

“And who for your supervisor?”

 

“Captain Takashi Shirogane, Princess Allura, and Coran.” Iverson nodded and took note.

 

“Three supervisors, smart idea.” Keith rolled his eye.

 

“Admiral Iverson, you tell me to choose three supervisors everytime I do this, I think I've learned a lesson.” Iverson chuckled a bit and murmured something under his breath.

 

“I'll have to finalize this and schedule a team meeting. Until then, you will be under full Garrison custody in the cellars.”

 

“Cellars?”

 

“Kogane, you do understand that you admitted that the ‘spirit of an evil dead guy’ is still part of you. We need to get that situated before we can start anything else.” Keith sighed and heard the door open. Two young officers, possibly just because officers, walked into the room with handcuffs in the male's hand.

 

“Kogane, meet junior officers Finley and Cho. They will be leading you to your cell, your loved ones will be noted of your custody.” Finley messed up with the handcuffs at first, putting them on Keith a little too tight, but Keith did really bother. They were junior officers, you can't really expect much from them.

 

* * *

  
  


“So now that we’re back to our normal forms, how are we going to continue our lives? Do we just go back like nothing happened?” The old paladins were having lunch together waiting for news that was supposed to be coming to them soon. 

 

Pidge took a bite out of her sandwich, “We can't just go back normal so casually. We just got ourselves out of a huge mess, we need time to relax for a bit.”

 

Allura took out her Altean treats, “Pidge is right. We should get used to how the world is changing before resuming our normal duties.”

 

What did the paladins do in this reality? Lance and Keith were pilot teachers, under the supervision of Shiro before Shiro left that for general education. Pidge and Hunk were technicians and Hunk taught both the tech classes and the culinary arts classes. Allura was the rule of new Altea, a role that in her absence was taken over by Romelle and Coran. They were quite an interesting bunch in this universe.

 

Now they are on a very long break from their jobs, with temporary fixes. Shay took over the culinary classes and tech classes were turned into a club sponsored by Matt. Sam and Colleen had to retake their spot, thankfully there were no technical difficulties to be too intense for the two to figure out at their old age.

 

“I think we should talk with some officials before we make a conclusion like our careers and when we can get back to them.” Lance played around with his healthy salad. Dammit Nadia, you just had to have the week your uncle awakes diet week. Their family didn't even need the diet!

 

“Paladins.” A voice from behind them spoke. It was Ryan Kinkade.

 

“Ryan! Long time no see man! Are those new glasses? They  _ frame  _ you quite well.” Ryan sighed.

 

“Lance, as punny as ever. But I'm not here to tell jokes or make another documentary this time. I have a message from Iverson for you all.” Their head perked up. For a second they forgot Keith was still in a major Garrison problem.

 

“You will all be included in a meeting as to carry out a plan made by Keith.” They all became very serious.

 

“What kind of plan?” Ryan shook his head 

 

“I'm not allowed to tell details, but then again I don't think I really know much. I was just sent to tell you all the meeting is at 6 during break time.” Hunk frowned.

 

“Wait, student lunches ended a while ago, and no teacher has a break right now except the early noon pilot teachers.” Ryan shrugged.

 

“I'm skipping class, honestly A/V Productions deserves a break for all the work they've been doing. With all the surprises this week and the school events, they've been pretty busy filming everything.” He looked down at his watch and sighed.

 

“Yeah, I should probably be going. I still have to tell Shiro and Adam, as well as not be late to late noon pilot classes. See you all later.” The paladins waved goodbye and he left.

 

“Man, remember the days when he rarely talked?”

 

“Yeah, all he did was grunt back then. Implementing the A/V classes has really let us hear his voice more often.” Everyone nodded and went back to eating, stabbing, or playing with their lunch.

 

Typical.

 

* * *

  
  


“So I heard that you're holding a meeting about something later. Mind explain since I'm going to be there anyway?” 

 

Shiro, Adam, and Adarien went to Keith's cell after being informed of the meeting and being held custody. Looking for answers from, possibly, the one person who knew what the hell was going on. Buy Keith did really tell much.

 

“I can't talk about all the details or else I can't get an immediate response that hasn't thoroughly thought out my plans.” He looked up at Shiro.

 

“Shiro, I know what your response will be if I tell you now and what your response will be if I tell you later, just promise me you'll be on my side in this situation. For the better good of this reality.” All three of the men on the other side if that cell were utterly confused(Adam was most confused since he had no idea there were multiple realities), but Shiro softly smiled at Keith.

 

“As long as you  _ know  _ what you're doing, I think we'll be fine on the trust thing.” Keith smiled back and Adam was on the verge of crying because of how beautiful this was. Keith looked directly at Adarien who was looking at his phone while Shiro and Keith were talking.

 

“Adarien Laith Kogane.” Adarien jolted when he heard his full name called, a situation when his father is about to be passive aggressive to him.

 

“You do not play on your phone while your dad is in a cell right in front of you. Not only is it a little disrespectful, but you'll also ruin your perfectly good eyesight and have glasses as Shiro did.” Shiro looked offended.

 

“If I remember correctly Keith, you were the one who helped me chose the style of my glasses.” Keith shrugged.

 

“I never claimed to be a fashion expert.” Adarien smiled at hearing his father's roast at Shiro. Keith looked right back at Adarien and Shiro backed up to be next to Adam.

 

“It's good to see you smiling, ‘Dare. The no smiling thing is my thing.” Adarien giggled.

 

“Yeah, I don't think the angst should be part of my daily life like yours.” Keith smiled, this boy passed on so much from both of them.

 

“Save the angst for when you get older, that's where it gets bad.” There was an awkward moment of silence.

 

“Sooo, you're a paladin now. Forgot to talk about that the last time we saw each other.” Adarien nodded his head.

 

“Yep! Red paladin, just like you and Uncle Lance were.” Keith sadly smiled.

 

“Yep, just like we were.” Adarien was constantly talking about his journey as a paladin. Although his career was short, and he didn't encounter races they've never dealt with, he still had stories. Stories about his friends, his family.

 

_ You're going to redo a whole reality? One where your son is happy about his achievements, his memories?   _

 

**_The next reality will give him a better life. Just as happy, maybe even more._ **

 

Adam had noticed something change of Keith's face.

 

“Hey Keith, are you all-” All of a sudden, Keith clutched onto his head, screaming in agony.

 

“Keith!”

 

“Dad!” 

 

“Someone, get someone in here that knows what to do!” Keith's hand slammed the cellar window.

 

“No.” The breathing on both sides of the wall slowed down. 

 

“I'm fine.” Keith's breathing slows down but on the other side of the wall, the hearts kept beating faster and faster.

 

“Dad, are you sure you're okay?” He looked back at them with a small smile.

 

“Yeah, attacks like that just happen sometimes but it's normal when you're possessed.” A girl cocked his eyebrow.

 

“Yeah, we need to get that fixed pretty quick.”

 

* * *

  
  


“So, Keith apparently knows why the smog is here.” 

 

The room was filled with all the necessary people plus a couple who needed to be there for informational reasons. That would be James and Veronica, the two in charge of the smog situation.

 

Then there were the supervisors, Allura, Shiro, and Coran.

 

The wonderful tech crew of the Garretts and the Holts.

 

Lance and Adam were there for...they actually didn’t really know.

 

Keith was there since he was the one requesting the meeting. He was in handcuffs and had two guards behind him

 

“It is 6:03 pm, October 28th, 21XX. The meeting shall be conducted.” Iverson was sat at the front of the table and had a clipboard in his hand filled with notes for the topics to be discussed.

 

“First topic, smog. Griffin and Veronica, Keith has some information for you.” Keith stood up and looked at the two officers. He explained how the smog was connected to what was happening outside of Earth.

 

“Interesting, so the theory of multiple realities Slav brought up a while ago is true and affecting both our reality and others. So the smog is just taking in people to begin the universe's restart process?” Veronica wrote down notes as she listened and talked. 

 

“Yes, although I myself don't know quite why I believe it was some type of imbalance in the universe. Something either universally went missing or had been universally added to make the restart happen to bring back the balance.” James was a bit more on the confused side of this situation but didn't ask questions. He could just ask Veronica afterward.

 

“Next order of business, Wheeler!” Adam's eye jumped from the beautiful man beside him to Iverson.

 

“Yes, sir.” 

 

“Kogane has an explanation on why you're here.” Adam's eyes went over to Keith, who was sitting uncomfortably in his seat.

 

“Okay, I want to just establish this first, I didn't mean to keep you here so long. I just thought plucking you out of time and space was be an interesting experiment, then when the kids found you, I realized it's harder to go back in time and space.”

 

“Wait, you’re the reason why I’m alive?” Keith nodded.

 

“Yes-ish. You are alive, as in  _ you  _ are alive. Although...you're also dead. You also don't come from this universe, which is why I haven't-”

 

“Wait wait wait wait wait. Slow down, let me process this.”

 

“No time, suffer like the rest of us have for the past decades. So in short, you are not the Adam of  _ our  _ universe, he’s long dead. So we have to get you out of our universe before the restart and you’ll be long wiped out of existence and our whole timeline is going to get a little wonky.” Keith looked at the Holt and the Garretts while Adam was sputtering out of pure confusion. Shiro was trying to calm him down while also processing what Keith just said as well.

 

“That’s where our tech professionals come in. I need your help to create a device to send Adam back to where he came from.” Pidge and Matt looked at Keith confused.

 

“Keith, do you know how universally time rip-ish that sounds? We would need to create a rip in the universe for us to be able to send him out of our universe, much less a specific universe like his.” Keith looked at them surprised.

 

“Do you not remember our final battle with Honerva? She literally ripped two whole universes before we killed her. We just need to get out hands on that technology and figure it out.” His facial expression turned into a plead.

 

“Please, I know you guys are some of the best technicians in the Garrison, perhaps the country. We have dealt with several different types of technology during the war, I’m sure we can figure something out.” Pidge and Hunk sigh, while the rest of their families were slightly unconfident on the idea.

 

“Fine, we’ll figure it out.” Keith gave them a small smile.

 

“Thank you.” Iverson flipped the page of his notes.

 

“After this meeting, everyone will be present at the build station. Is that clear?” 

 

“Clear.” They began to file out in a messy manner.

 

Lance was still unsure of why he was there, was it because they didn’t want him to be left out? All of his friends had a purpose to be at that meeting, except him.

 

“Lance.” He looked up to see Allura.

 

“Hey, princess.” He shot a smile at her and she smiled back.

 

“You okay, you seem to be a little down since we came back. Anything wrong?” he shook his head.

 

_ You’re lying to yourself, you have been for years. _

 

“I'm fine, let’s get to the station before Iverson yells at us for being late.”She giggles at his very true joke. A laugh that was refreshing to hear after so long.

 

“Yeah, let’s go.”

 

* * *

  
  


Let’s be honest here, Adam didn’t know what the fuck to do.

 

His head quite literally started hurting after that meeting. Things were going too fast, how could they all handle this.

 

“If things are being a little too sped up for you, get used to it and get some headache medicine. That’s the only way I’ve been able to deal with this mess I got myself into.” Hunk was searching through a box of supplies, looking for a specific part.

 

Jessa and Rowan had gone looking for Honerva’s old ships in the “Zombie Room”(aka the room for old ship stuff that no one really needs until they realize they should use it). Allura went with them as supervision.

 

Pidge, Matt, Sam, and Colleen were mapping out the logical way they should handle the build. Shiro helped out with the logic.

 

“Hunk, maybe you should look in these. They seem to be pretty old so I assume that means they have special uses we haven’t used in quite some time.” Coran brought out a large box. As he set it down, a gust of dust poofed from under the box. The old man had the muscles and energy of someone several decades younger than him.

 

“Thanks, Coran.”

 

“Your welcome, Hunk! I’ll go look for more boxes!” Hunk sighed and stretched out his back. 

 

“I’m getting a little old for this, how does Coran get all this energy?” Adam shrugged.

 

“I guess it’s just Altean genes?”

 

“Hey, why aren’t you helping?”

 

“The Holts told me specifically to not work. I don’t know why, but I’m not mad.” 

 

“Oh.”

 

It took a little while but Hunk finally found the part and the girls finally found the ship. Everything was being built and garbaged again and again. Then, Pidge approached Adam.

 

“I need your blood.” It was definitely a strange request. 

 

“What?”

 

“Your blood is the only connection to your universe that we can have proper access to. Most of Honerva’s technology was blood connected, which took a while to figure out. Blood could be the part that connects our universes.”

 

He followed Pidge and saw the ship they built. It was similar to his ship he rode in before he “died”, but it had more technological updates. Everything looked so rusty new that Adam was unsure if he could even fly it.

 

“Just prick your finger right here.” She showed him a needle that vaguely reminded him of the spindle from Sleeping Beauty. The look of the needle put fear into him, thanks needle fear.

 

“It’s not that hard, we have band-aids. And we have sterilized the needle- Wait, I gotta sterilize you!” She took a cotton ball from a little box and a small bottle of rubbing alcohol. She poured the alcohol on the ball and took Adam’s finger and rubbed the ball to sterilize the area.

 

“There we go, no infection today!” She threw the ball away and wait on Adam.

 

“You should hurry up, we quite literally don’t have much time.” She looked over to James and Veronica looking at a screen showing the globe. The Earth was engulfed by the cloudy color black, it was getting close to the pin on the map, their location.

 

_ Stop being a pussy, Adam. Just prick the damn finger. _

 

He closed his eyes and pricked the finger. He could feel a little blood drip off, but most of it disappeared the second it touches the needle.

 

“Woah.” Colleen got a band-aid from the first aid kit.

 

“Woah, indeed.” She patched him back up and suddenly a voice screamed from the other side of the room.

 

“Guys! We have to hurry, the smog is speeding up and soon enough the whole world will restart. Hurry!” James ran to the window, showing that the smog was coming close. It was still far, but it was for sure visible.

 

“We haven’t even tested this yet! We don’t know if he’s going to have a safe landing, or even if he returns to the right universe!” Keith ran towards them.

 

“Doesn’t matter now! We need to get him out now!” Everyone took a hand in moving the ship outside. Adam was thrown a familiar helmet. He ran to Shiro, the only one that didn’t move the ship.

 

“Shiro, just know I love you.” Shiro pulled him into a hug.

 

“I love you too. You’ll see me in your universe.”

 

“You two, stop being romantic and Adam get in the ship!” Everyone inside the Garrison ran out to see what was happening.

 

“Dad! What the hell is going on?” Adarien ran towards everyone else, he was followed by Jonah and Mira. Keith didn’t respond.

 

Adam speedily got in and buckled up.

 

“3...2...1.” The ship went extremely fact and a piece of the blue sky turned purple. The others had caught up and reunited with their families. They all held on tight to their family.

 

“Dad, what’s happening?” Keith kissed the top of his son’s head.

 

“Everything will be fine, when the smog comes close, close your eyes.” Lance went up to the two.

 

“You got any significant last words before our universal end.” Keith turned to him. The two facing each other for the first proper time in years.

 

“I’m sorry.”

 

It was over before they knew it.

 

Adarien closed his eyes.

 

* * *

  
  


Scream, scream, scream. 

 

Crash.

 

A blurred scene, a bright blue light.

 

The voices approach with familiar voices.

  
“It’s Officer Adam Wheeler.”

  
  
“What? Well, that’s bad timing.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thank you for all the support on this story.
> 
> Now on that "fix-it fic". It will start right after the one-year time skip. Yes, Lance is a farmer, Shiro is married. That just makes for more of a story to write. I have plans to make things work out, but like this whole fic, I make it up as I go( I literally thought of the whole 'stuck in the astral plane' stuff as I was writing that chapter and needed a filler plot). 
> 
> I won't give a specific time it'll be out(since we all know how great I am with time) but I do plan on it being out next year.
> 
> Have a happy holidays, my dudes!
> 
> (btw if anyone was confused on how the reality this whole story took place in, i'll answer any ask on tumblr)

**Author's Note:**

> My tumblr http://foololicious.tumblr.com/
> 
> Thanks for reading!


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